In June, Verizon Communications sued OnlineNic on the accusations of trademark infringement and illegal "cybersquatting. Last Friday, US District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel in San Jose, California awarded Verizon $33.2 million - that is, $50,000 for each of Verizon's 663 addresses that OnlineNic used.

In court papers, Verizon said that OnlineNic registered more than 900,000 domain names identical or confusingly similar to the domain names of big trademark companies, like Google, Yahoo, Adidas, Wal-Mart Stores, and MySpace. Such deliberate registration of addresses bamboozles Web users, taking them to pages advertised by competitors.

Verizon said OnlineNic used an automated process to register the addresses, along with employing various ways "to conceal its true identity." Verizon added that the "bad-faith registrations" of OnlineNic were aimed at diverting traffic away from the Verizon sites.

About the court's default ruling, Verizon associate general counsel, Sarah Deutsch said in a statement that the case "should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers. She added that Verizon would continue taking necessary steps for protecting its distinct "brand and consumers from Internet frauds and abuses."

However, whether or not Verizon will actually see the money awarded by the court is still a question, more so because registrar OnlineNic did not appear in federal court in California to defend itself. According to OnlineNic's Web, the company has been an accredited registrar since 1996 for the Icann - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - an organization overseeing Internet operations.