Social media company alleges that the registrar, or people using its Whois privacy service, is cybersquatting.
Facebook has filed a lawsuit (pdf) against domain name registrar OnlineNic and its Whois privacy service, Domain ID Shield, along with John Doe defendants.
The social media giant alleges that the defendants are cybersquatting on Facebook’s brands, including with domain names used for nefarious purposes.
Some of the domains listed in the lawsuit are www-facebook-login(.)com, login-lnstargram(.)com and hackingfacebook(.)net.
It’s a common strategy for plaintiffs in cybersquatting disputes to name the registrar in a lawsuit to try to get them to uncover the identity of the registrant. In this case, it seems that Facebook is questioning if OnlineNic is one of the actual users of the domains.
The company says it attempted to get OnlineNic to reveal the identity of the domain owners but was unsuccessful.
Attorney David J. Steele is representing Facebook. Steele previously sued OnlineNic on behalf of Verizon and won a $33 million default judgment.
Microsoft and Yahoo have also filed trademark infringement lawsuits against OnlineNic.
Vijay says
I hate cybersquatting. if they really did it, they will pay for it…
Yusuf Bitrus says
cybersquatting should be taken care of, and Facebook should really dig more for so many persons have lost their Facebook accounts to this frauds.
Daniel Ojo says
they should be jailed for doing such evil
Ay says
I pray Facebook wins the case
Bobby Lupo says
But its ok for Facebook to peddle false political ads. Oh the hypocrisy
Terkuma John says
They deserve it, they should pay for it.
Muideen Samuel says
I pray Facebook wins the case, they deserve to be punished.
Wilson says
I hope OnlineNic and these cybersquatters win.
They came first and they can and should do whatever they want to maximize their profits, even if it’s damaging others. It’s just business after all.
And if Facebook don’t want this to happen hen they should came up that people would register these domains in the first place and do their part.
Observer says
The lawsuit includes INSTAFACE.ORG which is clearly not infringing.
kennethafam says
They really made the right decision by doing that. They deserve case
nownaijs says
That is a great move. Nownaijs.com
Nownaijs says
What a great way to deal with that
Samclear says
Nice way to deal with them
News Flash says
Thanks for sharing this awesome knowledge
johnwicks says
thanks for sharing
davisloaded says
Nice way to deal with such scenario
daveola says
Love this
jay says
Cybersquatting is not good at all.