Company settles cybersquatting lawsuit ahead of trial.

Above.com and related parties have settled a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by Verizon.

The case was filed in February 2011 and Above.com was served during the DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica.

The suit alleged that the defendants used a number of false identities to traffic in trademark-infringing domain names. It alleged the company has registered, used and/or provided Above.com privacy service to at least 183 domains including Verizon’s trademarks, including VerizWireless.com, ActivateVerizon.net, and loginvzw.com.

The defendants initially said that they would take responsibility for the domains they had registered but not for their clients actions. The judge later ruled that Above.com could be liable for actions of its customers if it should have been aware of their activities. The defendants later backtracked and argued that they had not registered any of the allegedly infringing domain names themselves.

Terms of the settlement are not available. However, it “requires performance until June 30, 2014″. Typically a plaintiff in this sort of case wants a financial penalty as well as an agreement to refrain in the future from certain activities regarding the trademark.

The parties are also working a tolling agreement, which means that the statute of limitations will be extended in case the defendants do not follow through with requirements of the settlement agreement.

A trial was scheduled for October 2.