Law360, San Francisco (March 2, 2017, 9:13 PM EST) -- A California federal judge on Wednesday issued a permanent stipulated injunction that effectively shutters the business of a bot designer accused of selling users software that artificially boosts their viewer numbers on Twitch Interactive, a video game streaming site owned by Amazon.com Inc.

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman ruled that Justin Johnston, one of the case’s seven defendants, must disable his services, which allowed broadcasters to purchase views and followers on Twitch.tv. The injunction also prevents him from creating new similar domains, and from creating or advising others on how to make similar software that inflates numbers in violation the company’s terms of use. He must also give his Twitch-related domain names and social media handles to the company.

The order gave credence to Twitch’s assertion that the use of its mark was tricking users into thinking the bots were endorsed by the site. The software was advertised on websites using “Twitch” in the domain, Facebook and Twitter accounts that used the word “Twitch” and through unsolicited messages via the Twitch chat system.

“Defendant will transfer the domain names twitchstarter.com and twitchstarter.tv to Twitch and will permanently disable the services previously offered at the websites associated with those domain names,” the order says. “Defendant will not attempt to re-register these domain names or register any other domain names that include the word ‘twitch’ or any confusingly similar word(s).”

The software cheat presented a headache for Twitch, which relies on quality content by gamers to boost real viewership. Its lawsuit, filed in June, alleged the bots degraded the the Twitch user experience and tarnished its brand because they “make it harder for Twitch users to discover legitimate broadcasters and for those broadcasters to succeed.”

The complaint alleged trademark infringement, fraud unfair competition, cybersquatting, interference with contract and violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the California Computer Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Johnston was just one of seven developers named in the suit, and the only one to execute a waiver of service. The Colorado bot designer’s website, twitchstarter.com, allegedly promises gamers "more profile views, more viewers when you stream live, and more followers when you upgrade your account!”

Other defendants named in the suit have been served a second time by alternate means. They include Eric Bouchouev, a developer in the Netherlands who allegedly operates sites such as www.twitch-viewerbot.com and twitch-buddy.com, who will sell up to 4,000 “followers” for 36.73€ ($38.99) per month, and Michael and Katherine Anjomi, based in California and Nevada, who allegedly sell bot services that guarantee 20,000 channel views for 715.89€ ($759.99) a month.
None of the defendants have responded to the complaint.

Johnston and attorneys and representatives for Twitch were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Twitch is represented by Judith B. Jennison, Joseph P. Cutler, Holly M. Simpkins and Andrew N. Klein of Perkins Coie LLP.

Attorney information for the defendants is not available.

The case is Twitch Interactive Inc. v. Eric Bouchouev, et al., case number 5:16-cv-03404, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

--Additional reporting by Suevon Lee. Editing by Joe Phalon.