Anti-abortionist loses appeal over domain names
Publish date: 08 September 2004
Issue Number: 1046
Diary: Legalbrief eLaw
Category: Domains
A US Federal Appeals Court has upheld a ruling that Bill Purdy, an anti-abortion activist, had violated trademark law by registering a number of domain names used to point visitors to pro-life commentary and pictures, reports CNET News.
The sites Purdy had registered included drinkcoke.org, mycoca-cola.com, mymacdonalds.com and my-washingpost.com. Purdy claims that the companies he targeted promoted abortion. The court concluded that Purdy\'s collection of Web sites were \'confusingly similar\' to legitimate ones and therefore likely violated the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.
Full CNET News report
In the UK, the Laurel Pub Company Limited, owner of the Hogshead chain, has won a dispute with an ex-employee over the domain name hogshead.tv, reports Out-Law.com. Disgruntled ex-employee Peter Robertson had registered the domain in February and claimed, when confronted by Laurel\'s lawyers, that he had not thought of Laurel\'s trademark when he registered the name. After months of wrangling, Laurel\'s lawyers referred the matter to the World Intellectual Property Organisation\'s domain name dispute service, arguing that the name infringed its registered trademarks. The WIPO panellist found that Robertson had no right or interest in the domain and that Robertson had used the name in bad faith. The name was ordered to be transferred to Laurel.
Full Out-Law.com report
