August 24, 2005

Final step in the Falwell case?

In Lamparello v. Falwell, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the use of the domain name fallwell.com for a web site devoted to denouncing the views of Rev. Jerry Falwell about homosexuality neither infringes Falwell's trademark in his name nor constitutes cybersquatting.
In this important case, the court ruled that, where the web site is clear about being adverse to the interests of the trademark holder, the fact that the domain name for the web site resembles the trademark is not a reason to find infringement, because the domain name must be considered in the context of the web site.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You would think that Rev. Falwell would get tired of losing constitutional cases, but I have never accused him of being smart.