Sports leagues team up to take down counterfeiters.
A number of professional sports leagues and colleges have filed a lawsuit in an effort to seize domain names and shut down websites used to sell counterfeit goods.
The suit (pdf) was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Illinois.
The plaintiffs include the NBA, NHL, MLB, Collegiate Licensing Company, the University of Alabama, and the University of Oklahoma.
The complaint explains that the unknown defendants, which allegedly sell counterfeit goods infringing on the plaintiffs’ marks, have been able to hide their identities in a way that has made it impossible to track them down.
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants have used fake information to register domain names as well as whois privacy services to avoid identification:
Defendants go to great lengths to conceal their identities and often use multiple fictitious names and addresses to register and operate their massive network of Defendant Internet Stores. Many of Defendants’ names and addresses used to register the Defendant Domain Names are incomplete, contain randomly typed letters, or fail to include cities or states.
Other Defendant Domain Names use a privacy service that conceals the owner’s identity and contact information. On information and belief, Defendants constantly register new Defendant Domain Names using the identities listed in Schedule A to the Complaint, as well as other unknown fictitious names and addresses.
The list of domain name and fictitious names was filed under seal with the court, so there are no examples of the domain names nor information about where the domains are registered. The sports leagues believe some of the defendants are in China. Several Chinese registrars account for a significant number of seized domain names.
The complaint states that some of the domain names include the plaintiffs’ trademarks:
Numerous Defendant Domain Names also incorporate one or more of Plaintiffs’ Trademarks into the domain name to make it very difficult for consumers to distinguish the counterfeit Defendant Internet Stores from a legitimate retailer selling Plaintiffs’ Genuine Products.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to force domain name registries VeriSign, Neustar, Afilias and the Public Interest Registry to lock down the domain names pending resolution of the case.
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