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Anticyberquatting Consumer Protection Act

Return to part 1 of this article

Who May Be Liable Under the ACPA?

sm  Only a person who has a bad faith intent to profit from a mark may be held liable under the ACPA. In assessing the "bad faith" of a person who had registered another person's trademark as a domain name, courts will consider whether the person:
1. has any trademark or other rights in the domain name;
2. has a legal or commonly-used name matching the domain name;
3. has used the domain name for bona fide offers of goods or services;
4. is making "fair use" of the mark in a site using the domain name;
5. intended to divert customers to a site that could harm the trademark's goodwill;
6. offered to sell the domain name without having used it;
7. provided material false contact information in his domain name application;
8. registered or acquired multiple domain names that he knows are identical or confusingly similar to already distinctive or famous marks.

In general, domain name resellers who maintain a large stock of unused domain names, which they offer for sale to others, will be deemed to have "bad faith" under the ACPA if one or more of the names infringes another person's trademark. In contrast, a domain name owner who registers and uses a confusingly similar or dilutive mark for bona fide or "fair use" purposes, and who does not offer the name for sale, will probably not be deemed to have "bad faith."

"Fair use" of a trademark is a use for descriptive purposes, political commentary, parody, and other legally-recognized activities. There are no hard and fast rules in this area of law, so if you intend to knowingly make "fair use" of another's trademark, you should consult a trademark attorney.

Damages

Under the ACPA, trademark owners can obtain injunctive relief (i.e. a court order to forfeit, cancel or transfer the domain name), monetary damages, defendant's profits, costs, and possibly attorney's fees. The law allows the injured party to elect either actual damages (i.e. lost profits) or statutory damages of $1,000 to $100,000 per domain name.


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