Legal

The Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act was passed in 1999 by Congress. This legislation was designed to allow a trademark owner to bring a civil action against an infringing domain name to cancel or transfer it. Cybersquatting was big in the 1990s, but luckily President Clinton took the time to stamp out the practice.

The Consumer Protection Act says that a person will be held liable by the owner of a mark if he uses a domain name that is identical to the trademark or dilutive of the trademark. He is also liable if he plans to profit from that mark in bad faith. There are several factors the courts will take into account to determine whether or not a defendant has registered a domain name in bad faith.

Consumer Protection Act Factors in Determining Violation
First they will look at his intellectual property rights in the domain name. Does he have a legitimate interest in it? If not, he might be found liable for cybersquatting. They will also look to see if the domain name has anything to do with his legal name. If so, he might have a defense for registering the domain and the Consumer Protection Act has protected him.

The courts will also look at the defendants history with the site. Has he offered any products or services on it? They will investigate whether or not he intended to harm the image and reputation of the owners trademark. Did he try to divert consumers away from the trademark owners online site? Perhaps the most important issue the court will look at is whether or not the defendant tried to sell the domain name to the trademark owner without ever having used the site for any legitimate activities.