Facebook files lawsuit in Bangladesh for using its name with .bd domain

Facebook Inc has gone to a Bangladeshi court seeking $50,000 compensation over the registration of a website using the company’s name on a website with the dot bd (.bd) domain.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 22 Nov 2020, 09:17 PM
Updated : 22 Nov 2020, 09:17 PM

Lawyer Moksedul Islam started a case on behalf of the social media giant against A1 Software Ltd and an individual named SK Shamsul Alam at Dhaka’s District and Sessions Judges Court on Sunday.

Judge Shawkat Ali Chowdhury will hold a hearing on Dec 1, the court’s clerk Azizur Rahman said.

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 transfer of facebook.com.bd.