The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) was created in the US in order to solve domain name disputes. This is also known as 'Truth in Domain Names Act' and is an extension of the Lanham Act, which governs US trademark law on a federal level. It came into effect in 1999 and was intended to protect consumers from being misled.
A typical use for ACPA is cybersquatting. In order to appeal to the law, the plaintiff needs to be the trademark owner and show that the defendant is maliciously profiting from using their brand as a domain name. The domain and brand need to be identical or confusingly similar for the case to have any chance of success.
When does using a brand name actually become controversial? Previously, such maliciousness was determined by US jurisdiction as being when a domain is registered in order to abuse a brand’s traffic domain for their own purposes, or when a domain is bought so it can be sold to the trademark owner. Additionally, providing false information during the registration process is considered malicious. While some countries’ punishments include deleting or transferring a domain, ACPA is much stricter and damage claims of up to $100,000 have been recorded.