Domain tasters/cybersquatter operations Capitol Domains, Belgium Domains and Domain Doorman were named in a Florida legal actions by Dell Computers. Some of the court documents have been posted on Jay Westerdal’s blog and make for interesting reading. The suit also alleges that one Juan Pablo “JP” Vazquez of Miami, Florida is centrally involved in the operation. This is a massive domain tasting and cybersquatting operation responsible for the bulk of domain tasting in the last six months.
The domain tasting operation had effectively exploited the five day grace period to register and drop millions of domains. However what made this operation different was the way that it effectively passed on the domains through a network of registrars that it controlled so that it never had to actually pay for the domains. The abuse was on an industrial scale and the operation has been responsible for 185,650,068 domains tasted (approximately 72.5% of the total number of tasted domains) in the last six months according to Domaintools.com.
The case has an interesting angle in that Dell wants the activities to be considered counterfeiting rather than simple trademark infringement. This massively increases the maximum statutory penalty per offence to $1,000,000.
The court actions were sealed while Federal Marshals raided Valzquez’s home and seized computer hardware. The court also issued temporary restraining orders (TROs) that restrained the named parties from domain tasting, making money from domain tasting and or disposing of Dell related domains that they had registered. The documents also list some of the front companies that the operation had set up in to hide the registrations: Caribbean Online International, Domain Drop S.A., Domibot, Highlands International Investment,[url=http://www.uggsbootsclearance4u.com/][b]title=UGG Clearance[/b][/url], Cambridge Investments, Keyword Marketing Inc., Maison Tropicale, Marketing Total S.A, Click Cons Ltd., Wan-Fu China Ltd. and Web Advertising Corp, Belgium Domains LLC, Capitol Domains LLC, Domain Doorman LLC, Netrian Ventures LLC, IHoldings.com Inc, Unasi, Unaci, Domaincollection.com, Wang Lee Domains Ltd, Domaincar, Juan Pablo Vazquez and Does 1-10. The number of John Doe defendants indicates that the identify of some of those involved in the operation has yet to be confirmed.
It may be that the domain industry has just changed. Dell’s action will be closely watched and other affected companies may consider legal action against domain tasters and cybersquatters. The PPC advertising providers may also feel a cold wind blowing as a lot of their easy revenue will, if these legal actions are successful, disappear. It may also change the direct navigation model, or at least the section that depends on typo squatting for traffic. It may even convince ICANN to alter the registrar agreements.
Tags: Irishblogs,Cybersquatting, Domain Tasting, Domains, cybersquatters,[url=http://www.sale-ugg.us/][b]title=UGG Online[/b][/url], Internet Statistics, Cyberwarehousing, domainnames
Written by John McCormac on November 29th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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