Court issues stay order on use of facebook.com.bd domain

A Dhaka court on Monday issued an interim stay order on using the facebook.com.bd domain following a $50,000 compensation case filed by social networking giant Facebook against a local firm.

Justice Mohammed Shawkat Ali Chowdhury issued the order and asked the accused A1 Software Ltd and SK Shamsul Islam to respond within 15 days.

Facebook lawyer Barrister Moksadul Islam confirmed the matter to the Business Insider.

He claimed that the local company was unlawfully using the same domain — www.facebook.com.bd — as his client.

Moksadul said A1 Software Ltd was sent multiple legal notices asking them to stop using the same domain name, but Facebook did not receive any response.

On November 22, the case was filed by Facebook after A1 Software Ltd had announced to sell the domain for a whopping $6 million.

The firm on December 2008 bought a domain from state-run Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited for only Tk1,500 or approximately $18.