Court Awards Verizon Record $33 Million Dollar Judgment In a Cybersquatting Case
In the largest cybersquatting judgment ever, a federal court in the Northern District of California has awarded Verizon $33.15 million in a case in which an Internet domain registration company tried to take advantage of Verizon and Verizon customers by using Internet names chosen to be easily confused with legitimate Verizon names.
The default ruling came in a case filed by Verizon against OnlineNIC, a company based in San Francisco that had unlawfully registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical to or confusingly similar to Verizon trademarks. The court concluded that OnlineNIC’s bad-faith registrations of Verizon-related domain names were designed to attract web users who were seeking to access Verizon’s legitimate websites and calculated an award based on $50,000 per domain name. Neither OnlineNIC nor counsel representing the company appeared in court in OnlineNIC’s defense.
“This case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers,” said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate general counsel. “Verizon intends to continue to take all steps necessary to protect our brand and consumers from Internet frauds and abuses.”
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This case is important for VERIZON, but I don’t think that it will act as the precedent that VERIZON hopes for as it is so blatant as to be obvious to anyone that the domains were registered in bad faith. However, individual domainers would not necessarily be automatically ruled “cybersquatters” if they have legitimaste business uses for the domains.
Sarah D has had axe to grind for 12 yrs.
Have u seen her pppts to Congress?
She is also going After Es
Howard
It is important for all domainers to note the importance of responding to, and defending themselves against any action.
Failure to do so will lead to max awards against the defendants.
It’s also important to note that mass infringement of trademarks is a practice that is going to lead to decisions like this.
We are not talking about one infringing domain here but over 600 all targeting one company
Meanwhile, the daily email of “Most Popular Backordered Domains” from Pool.com still has a large population of trademark typos in it. Often typos so far removed from the original you’d be amazed anyone would *ever* type it in.
I can’t get over the hypocrisy here. I have Verizon broadband, and when I accidentally mistype domains into the browser, they are clearly monetizing domains in a similar fashion. Mistyped URLs show paid links to landing pages of my competitors, and other large corporation are also having the same thing happen to their typos – it is so blatant. Verizon is monetizing major trademarks on a massive scale, and there is no difference between what they do, and what this other company does.
The “victim” facade they portray is insulting to the senses. I know they are a huge corporation, but it sounds like the Verizon legal team needs to schedule a conference call and introduce themselves to their own internal Verizon typosquatting team.
Just went back to my machine that was serving the typos, and it appears another major corp has taken their place (and coincidentally serves up Google ads paid for by Verizon Wireless for Verizon domain typos).
I don’t know if Verizon is still doing the typo error page thing, but I know they were for a while.
Were these names owned by the registrar, or was this company the registrar of record for them? Although a judgement like this makes the legitimate companies in our industry look bad, I think it also puts many people on notice that while TM names may make revenue, all and more could be lost with a single lawsuit.
The courts did their job.
Somebody should e-mail the guys over at OnlineNIC.com and get the scoop.
This company may just be going under… They had a good run from 1996 – 2008 (2009??)
Now everybody who has names at OnlineNIC is going to be pulling them… Although most of their clients are web hosts/wholesale resellers.
Best,
Mike
http://www.wannadevelop.com
Maybe the reason OnlineNIC didn’t show up to defend
themselves is they were packing their bags……?
WHOA,
Ed – Michigan
There goes Verizon…calling the kettle black…again.
The reason why they continue to get away with it is because no one’s (yet) been willing to sue them over it.
Any volunteers?
That’s one catch, going against a deep-pocketed company.
UPDATE
The Appeals Court has upheld this judgment against Online Nic:
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-27-2009/0005084108&EDATE=