The Nine-Factor Statutory Test
ACPA sets out nine non-exclusive factors courts may consider in assessing bad-faith intent to profit, including the registrant's trademark or intellectual property rights (or lack thereof) in the domain, prior use of the domain in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services, intent to divert consumers for commercial gain, and a pattern of registering multiple domains the registrant knew were confusingly similar to marks held by others. Expert analysis maps the documented record of registration and use against each relevant factor rather than arguing intent in the abstract.
Portfolio Patterns as Evidence of Intent
One of the more persuasive categories of evidence is a demonstrated pattern — a registrant who has registered numerous domains matching or closely resembling marks held by unrelated third parties is far more exposed under the statute's bad-faith factors than one with a single disputed domain and a plausible independent justification for it.