Verizon’s Cybersquatter Based in China
January 6, 2009
by Richard Adhikari
OnlineNIC, the cybersquatter against which telecommunications giant Verizon was awarded a record $33.15 million judgment recently, is one of the largest domain name registrars in China, InternetNews.com has learned.
According to the records of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the assignment of domain names and IP addresses for the Internet, OnlineNIC, headquartered in Xiamen, China, was accredited by ICANN on October 21, 1999.
The documents show that OnlineNIC has registered more than 300,000 domain names. ICANN did not return calls for comment by press time.
However, Verizon may not be able to collect on the judgment because it has not been able to locate any of OnlineNIC’s U.S. offices, although the company is registered in San Francisco.