Cybersquatting and the Nuclear Option: What the Protect IP Act and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Means to Domainers
Cybersquatting law addresses trademark infringement under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP Policy) and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). But a new law which will directly affect domainers is gaining traction in Washington, D.C.. The Protect IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are working their way through Congress and appear to have enough traction to lead to the conclusion that some variation of these bills may eventually pass Congress. The Protect IP Act seeks to kill websites (i.e. domain names) which engage in copyright and trademark infringement when those websites/domain names are “dedicated to infringing activities.” Essentially, The Protect IP Act works at the DNS level. A website is taken down by pulling the domain name from domain name servers which serve up results in the United States. Essentially, the domain name is blacklisted from the Internet if it is determined that the primary activity of that website is to engage in trademark infringement or copyright infringement. Of course, trademark infringement on the Internet is primarily expressed by cybersquatting.
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