Legal Question in Technology Law in California

They have my website address .com since 1999 and want me to pay for it
Hi!

I have a travel agency that is a register company name in the state of Wisconsin. There is some person in the San Diego area that keeps renewing the website address of our company name with the .com extension. They have done this since 1999 and have not put any website on this address. The person will not answer back any email. Can I force them to turn it over to my business? They just renewed it again until 2006. What happens if they put something on there that is questionable and reflects back to my business? Plain and simple I want them to turn over the domain name to my company since it is correctly spelled out our company name www.vacationwarehouse.com. Our company name is Vacation Warehouse. And we have been in business for over 25 years but changed our name in 1997 to this new one.

So does anyone think I can force them to change the domian name. All they want is a profit to make off people but I feel my company's right to an internet name is being held hostage by some money grabbing person. Is there any way to fight this.

I appreciate anyones thoughts on this matter.

Asked on 7/28/03, 12:38 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

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Re: They have my website address .com since 1999 and want me to pay for it

The situation you describe is an instance of what has come to be called "cybersquatting," i.e. the practice of registering a Web domain name that is the same as (or stringly suggests) another person's business or trademark. If the use made of the Web domain expands to include interference with the other's business, e.g. siphoning off customers or malicious harm, the term is "cyperpiracy."

Generally speaking, cybersquatting is legal, since ownership of a domain name is not, without more, trademark infringement. If the domain name in question is the same as, or deceptively similar to, that of a famous company, a federal court might find trademark infringement in the fact of its mere registration (and non-use) by the cybersquatter.

Further, one who registers domain names and then attempts to sell the names to companies whose real-world trade names resemble the domain names may be committing cybersquatting under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999, a federal law codified at 15 USC 1125(d)(1). This law requires a bad-faith intent to profit on the part of the registrant.

The law in this area is evolving rapidly, and you may want to bring your prospective case to an intellectual-property lawyer for evaluation, but my guess based on limited information is that the registrant is probably not holding the name in bad faith and you would not be entitled to relief.

Answered on 7/28/03, 1:52 pm

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