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HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES Harvard Files Lawsuit To Protect Name
The University filed suit in federal district court in Boston on Dec. 6 against two "cybersquatters" who operate Internet Websites that offer to sell numerous domain names incorporating the Harvard and Radcliffe names. The case, President and Fellows of Harvard College v. Michael Rhys d/b/a Web-Pro and Michael Douglas d/b/a Web Productions, seeks an injunction against the Website and the use of the Harvard and Radcliffe trademarks. The defendants registered more than 65 Internet domain names incorporating the Harvard and Radcliffe trademarks, including "harvardcampus.com," "harvardeducation.com," "harvardfaculty.com," and "virtual-harvard.com." They then set up Websites (web-pro.com and harvardyardsale.com) on which they offered to sell or license many of these domain names. In October, they sent an e-mail message to the University, offering the University the "first right of refusal" for the names before they offered them to the general public. The University responded with a letter demanding that they immediately cease and desist from using the names or offering them for sale. When they failed to respond by the stipulated deadline, the University filed suit. The suit charges violation of a number of federal and state laws, including a law enacted by Congress a week ago – the "Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act" – to deal with persons who traffic in domain names. Among other things, the suit seeks an injunction requiring that the defendants remove all references to the Harvard and Radcliffe names from their Websites and that the offending domain names be canceled or transferred to the University.
Copyright 1999 President and Fellows of Harvard College |