Social media behemoth Facebook Inc. sued Alpharetta, Ga., resident John Paul Souza accusing him of “typosquatting” for putting up a website called Facebookmarketingforresults.com.
Typosquatting refers to using a website domain name that is confusingly similar to another, usually better known, website.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook claims in the suit filed Dec. 5 in Atlanta that Souza intentionally engaged in a scheme or multiple schemes to exploit and profit from Internet domain names that are confusingly similar to Facebook. When users went to his site, they saw colors, fonts, and other design elements to suggest, falsely, that the landing website and the commercial activities carried on at the landing website were connected to or approved by Facebook, the lawsuit said.
Souza’s website offered visitors prizes and awards that did not exist for completing a survey, according to the suit. Instead, they were exposed to advertisements and offers, some of which required them to divulge personal information.
The suit claims Souza got paid every time a consumer visited his site, clicked one of the offers or advertisements, bought goods or services and/or divulged personal information.
Facebook claims Souza intentionally took advantage of the confusing similarity between Facebook’s domain name, facebook.com, and his typosquatter domain name, facebookmarketingforresults.com, to drive Internet traffic to his website,
Facebook’s suit seeks, among other things, canceling the registrations for Souza’s typosquatter domain names or transferring ownership of Souza’s typosquatter domain names to Facebook; requiring Souza to account for, hold in constructive trust, pay over to Facebook, and disgorge all profits derived from the typosquatter site; awarding to Facebook damages, including, but not limited to, compensatory damages, statutory damages (including up to $100,000 for each infringing domain name) and Facebook’s legal fees.