Posted on 03/02/2005 7:32:17 PM PST by Rakkasan1
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- At least four Internet domain names that potential DFL gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates might like to have, including Attorney General Mike Hatch and Patty Wetterling, have been purchased by a blogger to direct visitors to a weblog critical of Minnesota Democrats.
The websites -- including www.mikehatchforgovernor.com and www.wetterlingforsenate.com -- are registered to Domains by Proxy, an Arizona-based company that acts as a front for people who want to shield their website registration information from the public.
The anonymous person who runs Minnesota Democrats Exposed posted a statement Monday saying that he or she purchased the domain names with personal money to increase the site's number of visitors.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
anyone want a domain name for the 6th Congressional race here in MN? I have some in my 'lock box'.
When Kofi Annan runs the Internet insensitive activities like this will not be permitted.
And everyone will use a browser called "UN Explorer."
They might not get away with this. A company called Virtual Works purchased www.vw.net, and then when VolksWagen spoke up about it, Virtual Works tried to get them to pay a ton of money. It went to court, and the court found in favor of VolksWagen. There are lots of commonlaw doctrines about property rights, and the court found it would be inequitable to allow Virtual Works to do this.
Virtual Works, Inc. v. Volkswagen of America, Inc.
238 F.3d 264
A summary of the case appears here: http://www.phillipsnizer.com/library/cases/lib_case8.cfm .
I'd post a link to the full text of the opinion, but it's subscription-only. The summary linked above is pretty decent.
TBG
That's such BS. First come first serve. Although I think it's a pricky thing to do.
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
When Price Waterhouse and Cooper's & Lybrand's merged into PricewaterhouseCooper's, they wanted their website address to be pwc.com, which was at that time the website of Philadelphia Water Company. They paid a hefty fee to the water dept to get that domain name.
Didn't the VW case focus on trademarks?
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