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FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALSFOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
 
D
AVID
L
AHOTI
, an individual,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
No. 08-35001v.D.C. No.
CV-06-01132-JLRV
ERICHECK
, I
NC
, a GeorgiaCorporation,OPINION
 Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Courtfor the Western District of WashingtonJames L. Robart, District Judge, PresidingArgued and SubmittedMarch 9, 2009—Seattle, WashingtonFiled November 16, 2009Before: William A. Fletcher, Ronald M. Gould, andRichard C. Tallman, Circuit Judges.Opinion by Judge Gould
15233
 
COUNSEL
Derek A. Newman, Randall Moeller, and John Du Wors,Newman & Newman, Attorneys at Law, LLP, Seattle, Wash-ington, for the plaintiff-appellant.
15237L
AHOTI
v. V
ERICHECK
, I
NC
 
Shannon M. Jost and Aviva Kamm, Stokes Lawrence, P.S.,Seattle, Washington, for the defendant-appellee.
OPINION
GOULD, Circuit Judge:David Lahoti appeals the district court’s bench trial judg-ment that his use of the “VeriCheck” Georgia state servicemark owned by Vericheck, Inc. violated the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”), 15U.S.C. § 1125(d), the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 et seq.,the Washington Consumer Protection Act (“WCPA”), Wash.Rev. Code § 19.86, and various Washington common lawdoctrines. Lahoti, who has previously been found liable forcybersquatting activities, obtained the domain name “veri-check.com,” but did not use the website to offer any goods orservices. We conclude that the district court’s factual decisionthat the “VeriCheck” mark was a distinctive, legally protect-able mark under the ACPA and federal trademark law wasbased in part on reasoning contrary to federal trademark lawand based in part on reasoning that could support the districtcourt’s conclusion. Because we believe the district courtshould decide the issue of distinctiveness in light of the prin-ciples we explain, we vacate the district court’s opinion andremand for further proceedings not inconsistent with thisopinion.
I
Vericheck, Inc. (“Vericheck”) is a Georgia corporation thatprovides electronic financial transaction processing services,including check verification, check guarantee, check collec-tion, account verification, automated check handling, and pay-ment processing services. Vericheck has advertised itself onits website as “[t]he leader in Check Verification and Guaran-
15238L
AHOTI
v. V
ERICHECK
, I
NC
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