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After shutting down one website with a lawsuit last month heading into UFC 110, Zuffa, LLC has filed suit against two more websites offering illegal streams of their events this week, according to a report from the Las Vegas Sun.
Filing suit in the U.S. District Court of Las Vegas last Friday, Zuffa is seeking a court order against the websites www.watchufc111.com and www.watchufc111free.com to have the domain registrars transfer those domains to the UFC.
The suit states that "an individual in Framlingham, Suffolk, United Kingdom, registered the watchufc111 name and an individual in Jacksonville, Fla., registered the watchufc111free name."
The suit further charges that the website domains "were registered with the bad faith intent to profit from UFC's trademarks and claims the registrants of the names have been cybersquatting, or trafficking in Web site names confusingly similar to those of the UFC."
There has been no comment from either of the charged parties in the suit to date.
Penick's Analysis: Zuffa is only going to catch these sites stupid enough to register names like this or to overtly advertise online streams for sale. There are still going to be plenty of places for people to find illegal ways to watch pay-per-view events online if they're resourceful enough to find them, or if they have the patience to deal with said streaming sites, but the UFC is at least making an attempt to crack down on what could (albeit only slightly) affect their bottom line.
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