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Keywords

defendantstatutesummary judgmentconsumer protection

contractwillappellantappellee

Related Cases

Schmidheiny v. Weber, 319 F.3d 581, 66 U.S.P.Q.2d 1062

Facts

Stephan Schmidheiny, a wealthy individual, sued Steven Weber and Famology.com, Inc. for violating the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act after Weber registered the domain name schmidheiny.com. The domain was initially registered by Weber in 1999, before the Act took effect. In June 2000, Famology.com, Inc. re-registered the domain name. Schmidheiny alleged that this re-registration violated the Act, prompting the legal dispute.

With a net worth of $3.1 billion, Appellant Stephan Schmidheiny has been ranked among the wealthiest individuals in the world by Forbes magazine for the past three years. In November 2000, Appellee Steven Weber sent an email to Schmidheiny's assistant, offering to sell Schmidheiny the domain name of schmidheiny.com. At the time, the schmidheiny.com domain name was registered to Appellee Famology.com, Inc.

Issue

Did the re-registration of the domain name schmidheiny.com by Famology.com, Inc. after the effective date of the Anti-cybersquatting Act constitute a violation of the Act?

Rule

The Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act prohibits the registration of a domain name that consists of the name of another living person without that person's consent, with the intent to profit from such name. The term 'registration' includes both initial registrations and re-registrations.

Analysis

The court analyzed whether the term 'registration' in the Anti-cybersquatting Act included re-registrations. It concluded that the plain meaning of 'registration' is not limited to initial registrations and encompasses re-registrations as well. The court found that Famology.com, Inc.'s re-registration of the domain name after the Act's effective date fell within the scope of the statute, thus constituting a violation.

We do not consider the 'creation date' of a domain name to control whether a registration is subject to the Anti-cybersquatting Act, and we believe that the plain meaning of the word 'registration' is not limited to 'creation registration.'

Conclusion

The court reversed the District Court's summary judgment in favor of the defendants and remanded the case for further proceedings, holding that the re-registration of the domain name was covered by the Anti-cybersquatting Act.

We will reverse, and remand the cause to the District Court for it to conduct further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Who won?

The court ruled in favor of Stephan Schmidheiny, concluding that the re-registration of the domain name schmidheiny.com by Famology.com, Inc. after the effective date of the Anti-cybersquatting Act constituted a violation of the Act. The court emphasized that allowing such re-registrations would undermine the protections intended by the Act, which aims to prevent the unauthorized use of living persons' names for profit.

We hold that the word 'registration' includes a new contract at a different registrar and to a different registrant. In this case, with respect to Famology.com-that occurs after the effective date of the Anti-cybersquatting Act.

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