Facebook awarded $2.8M in ruling against typosquatters

Steven Loeb · May 1, 2013 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/2f32

Typosquatters buy domain names similar to well-known websites, so users visit them by accident

You know how sometimes you make a mistake while typing in a website name? For example, you might type in Fscebook" or "Facebool" instead of Facebook without realizing? Then you get taken to some shady site that kind of looks like what you were looking for, but is somehow off. They might announce things like, "You are today's California Winner: Enter your information to claim your prize," or something else that should immediately seems shady to anyone who is not entirely new to the Internet.

Well, there is a name for buying up those domain names that are similar to well-known websites in the hope that people will visit them by accident. It's called typosquatting and it's illegal.

The United States District Court of Northern California ruling its favor  of Facebook Wednesday, against 11 defendants who had bought up a slew of similar looking domain names to purposely redirect users to websites that looked like Facebook. In some 

"Each of the default defendants registered at least one Internet domain name that includes or misspells the FACEBOOK domain, facebook.com, (hereinafter “infringing domain names”) or  — in the case of Cleanser Products — owned and operated websites to which Internet users were redirected when they visited infringing domain names (hereinafter 'landing websites' or 'landing pages,'" it said in the filing.

"Some owners of the infringing domain names worked with Cleanser Products to divert Internet users who were attempting to log-on to Facebook, but who accidentally misspelled the domain, to instead reach deceptive, typosquatting sites, which then redirected users to a landing website that looked like Facebook, but was owned by Cleanser Products."

The defendants were ordered to pay damages that depended how many domain names were registered. If the defendant had beetween one and nine domains, they would be ordered to pay $5,000 per domain, or a maximum of $45,000. For those defendants with between 40 and 49 registered domain, they were ordered to pay $25,000 per domain, or a maximum of $1,225,000.

The defendent that was ordered to pay the most, by far, was a company called Newgate Services Ld., which owned 47 domain names, including faasbook.com, faboock.com, facbnook.com , facbookl.com , facboox.com, faccebuk.com, faceabok.com, facebboc.com, facebnbook.com, facebocke.com, faceboobok.com, facebof.com, facebokbook.com, faceboobok.com, and facebookck.com. 

The company was ordered to pay a total of $1,340,000 for the 47 domain names, plus extra for having seven domains with "Facebook" spelled correctly and three that had "Facebook" spelled correctly alongside other correctly spelled words.  

In all, more than 105 domains were overturned to Facebook, and the company was awarded damages just under $2.8 million.

"We are pleased with the court's recommendation.  We will continue to use all the tools at our disposal to enforce against those who attempt to take advantage of the people who use our service," Craig Clark, Associate General Counsel for Facebook, told VatorNews.

Facebook had already won hundreds of domains in the case, but the real significance comes from the fact that it is now among the first companies to establish that typosquatters are liabile to pay damages under the U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which means that this ruling could potentially set a predecent for future cases.

Facebook Typo Squatter

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Steven Loeb

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