Date: 01/01/2010The congress encouraged this by passing the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act in 2010. ConsumerElectronics Association VP Petricone was worried seizure was a ‘blunt instrument’ that could harm legitimate businesses. In the early 21st century, the US Department of Justice began using a tactic of seizing domain names, based on the legal theory that domain names are part of the property used by defendants to allegedly engage in criminal activities, and thus subject to forfeiture.