Sandee Wolfinger
PO Box 414 • Grangeville, Idaho 83530
Phone: 208-983-0289 • Cell: 208-983-8032 • Fax: 208-983-7998
Email: sandee@ad-designplus.com • Website: www.ad-designplus.com

Classwork For Course:
"Issues In Internet Law"

Week Two: Chapters 5, 6, and 7
For my assignment I chose to use as my example the Chapter 6 - Trademark and Domain Names Quiz
provided on the website for our textbook: "Issues In Internet Law"

Question as follows:

"Barney Rubble registers his domain name, Barney.com Barney plans to post photographs of his little boy Bamm-Bamm lifting the family car and playing with his friend Pebbles. However, the creators of the children's icon "Barney the Brontosaurus," an anthropomorphic orange brontosaurus, have filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Barney Rubble claiming that his Barney.com Web site is infringing on their registered "Barney" trademark. They point to the fact that Barney has placed the phrases "Barney" and "orange brontosaurus" in his Web site meta tags. The creators of Barney the Brontosaurus have also filed suit against Sy B. Squatter, who has registered the domain names Barnie.com and BarnieTheBrontosaurus.com. When children mistakenly type in the misspelling of Barney's name at those Web sites they are taken to a pornographic Web site, MutantTeenageLesbianTurtles.com and every attempt to exit the Web site results in the appearance of a succession of pop-up ads for more sex Web sites. Are either of the Barney creators' lawsuits likely to succeed? Why or why not?"

List the issues involved and probable outcomes.

In my web design business I deal with the purchase of domain names, so this is a topic that is very revelant to my daily work. So to begin let's break down the above scenario and find what laws were being broken and if any actions should be taken to correct the issues.

Part 1:

"Barney Rubble registers his domain name, Barney.com Barney plans to post photographs of his little boy Bamm-Bamm lifting the family car and playing with his friend Pebbles. However, the creators of the children's icon "Barney the Brontosaurus," an anthropomorphic orange brontosaurus, have filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Barney Rubble claiming that his Barney.com Web site is infringing on their registered "Barney" trademark. They point to the fact that Barney has placed the phrases "Barney" and "orange brontosaurus" in his Web site meta tags."

Barney Rubble has registered a web site: Barney.com. Barney is planning to use his web site for family photos of his little boy and friends. Barney is not using his web site for any type of retail or merchandising and is not a business or has a business that he will be using this web site for the purpose of making an income. So there will be no monetary gain from this web site for Mr. Rubble. The creators of the children's icon "Barney" are saying the Mr. Rubble has infringed on their trademark because of the search engine terms that he has used. Mr. Rubble is not using these terms to pull up any form of advertising or for any type of profit, so I believe that the courts would not consider Mr. Rubble's web site or his search engine terms as any type of an infringement on the trademark rights of "Barney the Brontosaurus" or their creators.

Part 2:

"The creators of Barney the Brontosaurus have also filed suit against Sy B. Squatter, who has registered the domain names Barnie.com and BarnieTheBrontosaurus.com. When children mistakenly type in the misspelling of Barney's name at those Web sites they are taken to a pornographic Web site, MutantTeenageLesbianTurtles.com and every attempt to exit the Web site results in the appearance of a succession of pop-up ads for more sex Web sites."

The creators of "Barney the Brontosaurus" have also filed a suit against Sy B. Squatter, for this issue I do believe the courts would rule in favor of the creators of "Barney the Brontosaurus" because children would be apt to mistakenly type in the wrong names and get into a site that is for adults only. These sites also lead to pop-up ads that are also for adults only and are there to make a profit for Sy B. Squatter. Since Sy B. Squatter is using these domain names to make a profit and the domain names (and were obviously picked purposefully) are so similar they are definately infringing on the trademark rights of the creators of "Barney the Brontosaurus".

"Are either of the Barney creators' lawsuits likely to succeed? Why or why not?"

The first issue in Part 1 of this question will not succeed as Barney Rubble is not using the web site he created to make any money and has not tried to infringe purposefully on any of the "Barney the Brontosaurus" trademark rights.

The second issue in Part 2 of this question will succeed as there is a definate use of the domain name to make money and to mislead people into sites that are not child appropriate. Sy B. Squatter is definately out to make money and shows no concern for what he is doing to children and the general public with their web sites.

The reason I chose this example for my paper is because this is something that is related to my work. I am a small business owner that specializes in designing and publishing websites, designing brochures and advertising literature for other business, etc. Copyright, trademarks and domain name laws are something that I need to be much more informed about and need to understand clearly. I look forward to broadening my knowledge on these legal issues in this class.

Thank you for taking the time to read and evaluate this paper.

Sandee Wolfinger
Ad-DesignPlus.com
Grangeville, Idaho 83530
Email: sandee@ad-designplus.com

Sandee Wolfinger PO Box 414 • Grangeville, Idaho 83530 Phone: 208-983-0289 • Cell: 208-983-8032 • Fax: 208-983-7998 Email: sandee@ad-designplus.com • Website: www.ad-designplus.com

Classwork For Course: "Issues In Internet Law"

Week Two: Chapters 5, 6, and 7 For my assignment I chose to use as my example the Chapter 6 - Trademark and Domain Names Quiz provided on the website for our textbook: "Issues In Internet Law"