Pay-Per-Click Cybersquatting
Posted on: 10/11/2013
The popular Internet domain registrar godaddy.com has been the target of some heated debate. A California federal judge has recently found that GoDaddys’ Parked page program does not qualify for safe harbour protection under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Before this act registrars could capitalize on the misspelling of popular websites or domains and collect revenue on a pay-per-click basis. This revenue would then be split between a company such as GoDaddy and its advertising partners. The court has pushed aside GoDaddys’ contest stating that although the GoDaddy company did not collect any actual revenue from the infringing web pages, the intent to profit by its registrars is enough to void any safe harbour under the said act (“ACPA”).
