ruling on deceitful domain names

[David Honig <honig@otc.net>]

Seems a wee bit o' infowar is breaking out in the DNS...  

........................................

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/wired/story.html?s=n/reuters
/980213/wired/stories/domain_1.html

Friday February 13 2:17 PM EST 


 Planned Parenthood wins ruling in domain dispute

 By Jen Sullivan 

 SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - In a decision that underscores the thorny and
ongoing issue of brand identity and domain names, the
 U.S. Second Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction issued last
March that prevented the use of the plannedparenthood.com
 domain name for a personal anti-abortion Web site. 

 U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood ruled that there was "significant
likelihood" that the Web site by Richard Bucci of Syracuse,
 New York, would cause confusion among individuals seeking Planned
Parenthood's actual site, plannedparenthood.org. 

 The .com version has been placed "on hold" by Network Solutions Inc. (NSI)
and is not accessible to Web browsers. 

 Planned Parenthood general counsel Eve Paul lauded the decision. 

 "We aren't a big company that owns factories, we just have our name, and
women all over the country trust our name," Paul said. "We
 can't afford to let someone use it for their own political purposes." 

 Paul praised the court's finding that Bucci's use of the domain was
misleading. "When you went to that Web site, it said 'Welcome to
 the Planned Parenthood home page,"' said Paul. "It really had a very
negative effect on our ability to reach a great audience out there."

 In addition to espousing anti-abortion views, Bucci's site promoted his
friend's anti-abortion book. 

 Bucci, an anti-abortion activist who also hosts a local radio program
several times a week called "Catholic Hour," stopped using the
 disputed domain name after the judge issued her preliminary injunction,
but plans to fight the court's decision, taking appeals all the way
 to Supreme Court if possible. 

 "Do you remember General Patton? We're going to continue to hold Planned
Parenthood by the nose and kick them in the derriere,"
 Bucci said. 

 Though pleased with the end result, Paul expressed dismay over the slow
speed of the process, first with NSI, and then with the
 ensuing legal action. 

 "Network Solutions was very slow," said Paul. "If they had been available,
it certainly would have been cheaper. 

 "Our trademark lawyer wrote them a letter, and they sent back a very
bureaucratic response, saying that we hadn't crossed our T's
 and dotted our I's. We went to court but that turned out to be a longer
process than we had hoped," she said. 

 Network Solutions' stated policy is that they do not arbitrate in
trademark infringement cases. 

 "What insanity has gotten into the minds of the people when they think of
domain names and the Internet," said David Graves, director
 of business affairs at NSI. "What mechanism does the Newspaper Association
of America have in place when an advertiser infringes
 on a trademark in an advertisement? They don't have separate mechanisms." 

 Stanton McCandlish, program director of the Electronic Frontier Federation
(EFF), agreed that trademark infringement is purely a legal
 issue. 

 "NSI has not been doing a very good job," McCandlish said. "They lose
registrations, things get screwed up. But trademark is a big
 open issue. I don't think that anyone can expect NSI to solve that one.
Lawsuits are inevitable. There is not any way to get to heart of
 the matter." 

 Paul said Planned Parenthood was in the process of acquiring the
"plannedparenthood.com" domain name. 

------------------------------------------------------------
      David Honig                   Orbit Technology
     honig@otc.net                  Intaanetto Jigyoubu

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