Dhaka court bans use 'facebook.com.bd' domain

A Dhaka court has banned the use of 'facebook.com.bd' domain in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Facebook Inc over the website's registration.

Dhaka District Judge Shawkat Ali Chowdhury issued an interim injunction after a hearing on Monday.

The court has also asked the defendant to explain within 15 days why a permanent ban on using the domain should not be issued.

The injunction will remain effective until the next hearing in the case takes place on Mar 9.

On Nov 23, lawyer Moksedul Islam, representative of Facebook filed a case against A-1 Software Limited and S K Shamsul Islam with the Dhaka District and Session Court.

The defendants were asked to pay $50,000 in compensation.

Facebook got its website facebook.com registered in Bangladesh by the Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks in January 2010.

Shamsul applied for the domain facebook.com.bd and got it cleared by Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited the same year.

The facebook.com.bd website was activated in December 2008, according to the BTCL website.

Facebook authorities sent a legal notice when facebook.com.bd was put up for sale at $6 million.

SM Arifur Rahman, a lawyer for Facebook, said they started the case as the .bd website was not taken down following its warning.

Facebook also sought a ban on the transfer of facebook.com.bd.