Court Upholds Decision to Award Verizon Largest-Ever Judgment in a Cybersquatting...

Court Upholds Decision to Award Verizon Largest-Ever Judgment in a
Cybersquatting Case
Northern California Company Ordered to Pay More Than $33 Million in Damages

NEW YORK, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The largest cybersquatting judgment ever has
been upheld by a federal court in the Northern District of California. The
court denied the motion of the defendant -- OnlineNIC, an Internet domain
registration company in San Francisco -- to set aside a December 2008 judgment
in which Verizon was awarded $33.15 million.

The case is based on OnlineNIC's attempts to take advantage of Verizon and
Verizon customers by using Internet names that are easily confused with
legitimate Verizon names.

This is the most recent decision in the case against OnlineNIC, which had
unlawfully registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical to
or confusingly similar to Verizon trademarks. The court had previously found
that OnlineNIC's bad faith registrations of Verizon-related domain names were
designed to attract Web users who were seeking to access Verizon's legitimate
Web sites, and calculated an award based on $50,000 per domain name.

In its most recent decision, on Tuesday (Aug. 25), the court concluded that
OnlineNIC is "a serial cybersquatter," that, in "blatant and willful
violation" of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, registered
Verizon domain names to "prey on consumer confusion." As the court found,
"OnlineNIC's intent was to divert consumers searching for Verizon's Web
sites." In addition to upholding the original decision, the court also ordered
OnlineNIC to pay Verizon its attorneys' fees and costs.

"We hope the court's decision goes a long way toward protecting consumers from
becoming targets of Internet abuses and frauds," said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon
vice president and associate general counsel. "Verizon is determined to
protect our brand and consumers from cybersquatters whose businesses are based
on misleading consumers."

Verizon Has Won a String of Similar Cases
In earlier cybersquatting cases, courts granted contested preliminary
injunctions against four different violators. Verizon continues to increase
its enforcement activities in trademark cases as part of its broader effort to
protect its brand and put its intellectual property innovations to work.

In 2008, Verizon's intellectual property legal group was named one of the five
best in the world by the International Law Office, with the support of the
Association of Corporate Counsel.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global
leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications
services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.
Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving
more than 87 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations
provide converged communications, information and entertainment services over
the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. Wireline also includes
Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to
customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse
workforce of more than 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating
revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit
www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon

Alberto Canal, +1-908-559-6367, alberto.c.canal@verizon.com