Abstract: This Article suggests the time is ripe for the United States Supreme Court to interpret the fair use defense of free speech or parody under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (”ACPA”). The ACPA was enacted in 1999 to protect consumers from “cybersquatting,” or when a non-trademark holder registers a domain name of a trademark and attempts to: (1) sell the name either to the holder for a ransom or to the highest bidder; or (2) divert or confuse consumers. Although published decisions from the circuit courts interpreting the ACPA continue to explore the marriage of trademark protection with the First Amendment’s protections of domain names and websites as free speech, a conflicting criteria has emerged regarding when an alleged cybersquatter can successfully assert the fair use defense.

You can never keep trademark holders down, not when they have oodles of money to pay oodles of lawyers, which is what ICANN is finding as it plans to implement new generic Top Level Domains, with the expectation being they will commence taking applications sometime this year. Following intense lobbying of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, the GAC succumbed to the pressure and have been putting pressure on ICANN to give trademark holders what they want.

Lew Moorman, CSO and president of cloud at Rackspace, taken from a video about the Rackspace/Akamai partnership (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting provider Rackspace Hosting ( www.rackspace.com ) announced on Wednesday it has partnered with content delivery network provider Akamai Technologies ( www.akamai.com ) to offer Akamai’s Web acceleration and cloud optimization services as part of its dedicated and cloud hosting portfolio. Rackspace will work to integrate key features from Akamai such as CNAMEs, SSL, and CDN delivery for Cloud Files, Rackspace’s scalable online storage service. Additionally, Rackspace will resell a range of essential Akamai site and application acceleration services to its customers.

Web Hosting News – San Antonio, TX and Cambridge, MA – Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, announced today a strategic relationship that will enable Rackspace to offer Akamai’s web acceleration and cloud optimization services as part of its dedicated and cloud hosting portfolio. Responding to the needs of its customers, Rackspace will work to integrate key features from Akamai such as CNAMEs, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and CDN delivery for Cloud Files, a Rackspace service that provides highly scalable online storage for files and media.  Additionally, Rackspace will resell a range of essential Akamai site and application acceleration services to its customers.  The goal is to create a one-stop shop for hosting, cloud, and acceleration services for web content and applications

Microsoft Want To Prevent ‘App Store’ Trademark Thursday, January 13, 2011, 9:24:55 AM It was revealed this week that Microsoft (MSFT) is filing a dispute regarding Apple’s (AAPL) claim over the ‘App Store’ trademark. Apple initially applied for a licence over the phrase in 2008, meaning it has taken Microsoft over 2 years to contact the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and ask them to rebut the request. Although Microsoft already has run its own applications store, called Microsoft Marketplace, since 2009, they are now claiming that the term ‘app store’ it too general to be trademarked.

01|05|2011 2:06 pm EDT Groupon Addresses Australian Cybersquatting Problem by Kevin Ohashi in Categories: Legal Issues – 1 Comment Groupon has addressed a question in their blog titled Why Groupon Isn’t in Australia . The short answer is a cybersquatter / competitor has registered Groupon.com.au and the Groupon Pty Ltd business name as well as filed for a trademark for Groupon.

The National Arbitration Forum announced that a ruling has been issued in favor of AOL regarding rights to three Internet domain name AOLAnswers.co,AOLAnswers.net and YellowPagesAol.com . AOL ,represented in this case by James R.Davis submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum a while ago asserting legal rights to the disputed domain names. The company owns trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the “AOL” mark.Therefore,the company contended that the disputed domain names are confusingly similar to its trademark.Moreover,AOL contended that the respondent registered and used the disputed domain names in bad faith

The International Olympic Committee has written to ICANN stating its unhappiness with the new generic Top Level Domain process saying they “uniformly request – in the event that ICANN does proceed to launch an unlimited number of new gTLDs – that the Olympic trademarks, including OLYMPIC and OLYMPIAD, be placed on the reserved names list.” In their opening paragraph the IOC also note they have “submitted eleven public comments to ICANN opposing its new gTLD program” and to date had not received a response. And if the IOC does not get what it wants, they say they “are prepared to employ all available legislative, regulatory, administrative and judicial mechanisms to hold ICANN accountable for damage caused to the Olympic Movement.” If the IOC had taken an interest in the process it would have undoubtedly realised that responding to every submission would be difficult and time consuming.

The International Olympic Committee has written to ICANN stating its unhappiness with the new generic Top Level Domain process saying they “uniformly request – in the event that ICANN does proceed to launch an unlimited number of new gTLDs – that the Olympic trademarks, including OLYMPIC and OLYMPIAD, be placed on the reserved names list.” In their opening paragraph the IOC also note they have “submitted eleven public comments to ICANN opposing its new gTLD program” and to date had not received a response. And if the IOC does not get what it wants, they say they “are prepared to employ all available legislative, regulatory, administrative and judicial mechanisms to hold ICANN accountable for damage caused to the Olympic Movement.” If the IOC had taken an interest in the process it would have undoubtedly realised that responding to every submission would be difficult and time consuming.

11|22|2010 5:15 pm EDT Overstock Continues their Quest to Own o.*, Buys o.co.za by Frank Michlick in Categories: Domain Sales , Up to the Minute – 2 Comments According to a note DNN received from Sedo, Overstock purchased o.co.za through Sedo for $9,000 USD. This continues Overstock’s quest to own as many o.* domains as possible, ultimately hoping to own o.com . Here’s the note DNN received from Sedo: Recently, Overstock purchased o.co.za through Sedo for $9,000