Court Gives “Thumbs Down” to Domain Name Proxy Service’s Motion to Dismiss Facebook’s ACPA Complaint Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Considering allegations under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and trademark infringement, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona allowed a case to proceed against a domain name proxy service. Though the merits of the case have yet to be decided, the case offers a ray of hope to brand owners addressing cybersquatted domain names registered by unknown domain registrants.
Defendant Namecheap is a domain name registrar that allows its customers to opt into defendant WhoisGuard’s proxy service. WhoisGuard keeps a domain registrant’s WHOIS contact information concealed from the public by registering Namecheap’s customers’ domain names in the name of WhoisGuard (i.e., displaying WhoisGuard’s name and contact information in WHOIS records). It then licenses the domains back to Namecheap’s customers.