A federal judge in the Northern District of California has ruled in favor of Montreal-based Aylo Holdings, parent company of Pornhub in a cybersquatting lawsuit that targeted domain names allegedly used to profit from Aylo’s registered trademarks.

In a final order issued March 21, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar adopted a magistrate’s recommendation and granted default judgment to Aylo subsidiary Licensing IP International S.a.r.l. The ruling compels the San Francisco-based domain registrar Tonic, the trade name for the Tonga Network Information Center, to transfer several infringing “.to” domain names to the plaintiff.

The affected domains include “mydirtyhobby.to,” “mdh.to,” “watchmdh.to,” and “watchdirty.to”—all accused of unlawfully using the names and content associated with MyDirtyHobby, a trademark owned by Aylo. The court also ordered the transfer of any additional “.to” domains registered by the same entities that are confusingly similar to Aylo’s federally registered trademarks.

The lawsuit, filed in 2024, marked a rare use of the in rem legal approach in federal court, targeting the domain names themselves as property rather than pursuing the unknown individual registrants. Because the case was filed in rem, personal jurisdiction over the foreign operators of the domains was not required—a key procedural advantage given the anonymity and evasiveness of piracy site operators.

None of the registrants appeared in court, prompting the court to accept Licensing IP’s motion for default judgment. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler had issued a report in February recommending the domain transfers, which Judge Tigar accepted in full.

While cybersquatting disputes are commonly handled through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) via its Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), Aylo chose instead to pursue federal litigation. The decision signals a more aggressive legal strategy by the company, which has historically targeted piracy operations through copyright claims.

“This case shows there are still effective legal tools to take down pirate domains—especially when they target creators and misuse their names and content,” said Jason Tucker, president of Battleship Stance, an anti-piracy consultancy that works with Aylo.

Despite the court’s directive, some of the targeted domains reportedly remained online as of last week. It remains unclear how swiftly the Tonga Network Information Center will comply with the transfer order.