Cybersquatter Arrested in Hollywood, FL. John Zuccarini, first known to the world as a defendant in one of the first cases filed under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, has been arrested in a motel in Hollywood, FL and charged with criminal violations of the Truth in Domain Names Act. Zuccarini was sued in 1999 by the owner of the Joe Cartoon trademark for registering misppellings of the Joe Cartoon website and directing consumers to advertising sites. Zuccarini lost in district court and later in the Third Circuit and was fined $10,000 for each domain name and required to pay Joe Cartoon's attorney's fees. Zuccarini claimed he made between $800,000 and $1,000,000 each year from the operation of over 3,000 websites of misspelled names of famous marks. In a criminal complaint filed in Manhattan, prosecutors claimed that Zuccarini deliberately targeted children's websites because children were more likely to make spelling mistakes and because he earned 25 cents for every hit directed from his sites to the pornagraphic sites. Zuccarini is the first person charged under the new Truth in Domain Names Act, which makes it a crime to lure children to pornagraphic websites.
Posted by franchiselawblog at September 3, 2003 06:48 PM