San Francisco domain registrar OnlineNIC fails to show in court and is slapped with a $33.15 million judgment for bad faith registrations of Verizon-related domains. A judge rules that OnlineNIC's efforts were designed to attract Web users who were seeking to access Verizon's legitimate Web sites. OnlineNIC has registered more than 900,000 domain names similar to Web sites maintained by Google, MySpace, Yahoo and retailers such as Wal-Mart.A U.S.
district court has granted Verizon
a $33.15 million judgment against domain registrar OnlineNIC for bad faith
registrations of Verizon-related domains. OnlineNIC, based in San
Francisco, registered 663 domain names that were
identical or similar to Verizon trademarks.
In a Dec. 24 decision, Judge Jeremy Fogel of the California Northern
District Court ordered OnlineNIC to pay $50,000 per violation.
"[OnlineNIC] has registered hundreds of domain names that are designed
to attract users seeking to access Verizon's legitimate Web sites," Fogel
wrote in his decision. "[OnlineNIC] has refused to alter its behavior, and
its bad faith is further evidenced by its machinations to avoid detection
through the use of fictitious business entities, shell corporations and kiting
of its domain names."
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The decision ordered OnlineNIC, which did not appear in court to defend
itself, to transfer all of the offending domain names to Verizon. In addition,
Fogel issued an injunction barring OnlineNIC from registering any other domain
names similar to Verizon's.
Verizon contended in a June lawsuit that OnlineNIC profited from fraudulent
domain names such as myverizonwireless.com, verizoncellularphone.com and iphoneverizonplans.com
by serving ads offered by Verizon rivals.
"This case should send a clear message and serve to deter
cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of
misleading consumers," Sarah Deutsch, Verizon vice president and associate
general counsel, said in a statement. "Verizon intends to continue to take
all steps necessary to protect our brand and consumers from Internet frauds and
abuses."
According to Verizon, OnlineNIC has registered more than 900,000 domain
names similar to those of Web sites maintained by Google, MySpace, Yahoo and
retailers such as Wal-Mart. Verizon said in its lawsuit that OnlineNIC uses an
automated process to register the names and then employs "numerous means
to conceal its true identity."