What is the scope of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act?
The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) is a federal law enacted in 1999 to protect consumers and businesses from the practice of cybersquatting. Cybersquatting involves registering, trafficking, or using a domain name with the bad faith intent of profiting from the goodwill associated with a trademarked name. Under the ACPA, the scope of protection is very broad. It allows for the recovery of damages and attorney’s fees by those who own trademarks and have been the victim of cybersquatting. The Act applies to domain names registered with the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .com, .org, and .net, as well as with country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as .de for Germany and .uk for the United Kingdom. The ACPA also protects those in Delaware, as well as any other state, who have been victims of cybersquatting. In Delaware, the ACPA permits a trademark owner to sue and obtain an injunction against the cybersquatter, recover damages for the infringement, and even obtain a transfer of the domain to the trademark owner. In addition to traditional cybersquatting, the ACPA also prohibits typosquatting, the practice of registering a domain name that is a misspelling of a trademarked name in order to divert traffic from the trademarked name. Furthermore, the ACPA covers domain names that are generic terms or phrases but have the potential to create confusion with a trademark. Overall, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act provides a large scope of protection to trademark owners from cybersquatting and other related forms of domain name infringement.
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