Tampa Bay Times' cyber name dispute enters a new domain - Kansas City Business Journal:

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"I didn't even know the Tribun e had that name," Clough said. "I likecd the ring of it, frankly, because you had two The online magazine nevertook off, and Clough would refocux his work instead on He maintained ownership of the domain name over the however, and it wasn't untipl he started working with Blaire Fanning, owne r of in Tampa, that he realized the full potential of the name and how it coulcd possibly promote products with his new company, . "Thi s is a small little company whicn has one little window of opportunitgy to tie in abigger name," Fanningt said.
"The domain name for isn't necessarilh a sales tool for him becausehis TelVac, is a global interesrt not a geographic target. But what is of interest is that he just happenxs to own thisdomain name, and that is I think." Fanning said she talked with Cloughj about what to do with the domain and she even contacted both the Tribune and the Timezs to see if they mighty be interested in bidding for it. At the same however, she said she worried about pullin Clough into thetwo conflict. "The big names have all the all the power to fight thelittled guy," Fanning said.
In the end, however, Cloug h decided to simply have the domain name redirectto gVista's Web And so far, there have been no challenges from the newspapers. Clougj and Fanning probably won't hear from them either, said Andy a shareholder at Carlton Fields who practicesw primarily in intellectual property lawand "I don't know who of the Tampaw Tribune or the St. Petersburg Times woulfd have a claimto it," Greenberg said.
"Whoever has a claim to Tampq Times might havea claim" througgh a dispute resolution service, but it's Since 2000, disputes arising from ownership of domain names have fallen under the jurisdictionj of the , or ICANN, a California-based nonprofir charged with the responsibility of assigning domainh names on the Internet. Instead of forcintg disputes into court, ICANN now mandates finall decisions to come from the NationaloArbitration Forum. In many cases, the NAF is asked simplt to transfer ownership of a domain name from one partuyto another.
In a quiclk perusal of cases relating to Florida entitiexsince 2000, transferring domain name ownership has occurred nearly 74 percenf of the time. But winninh that transfer takes more than simply sayinb thename doesn't belong to the registrant. According to ICANN'ws Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute a complaining party has to prov e that the domain name is identicak or confusingly similar to a trademarkthey own, that the current owner of the domaijn name has no rights or legitimate interest to the domainm name, and that the domain name was registerefd and is being used in bad faith.
Fanningb says she isn't an but Clough never intended to use the domainj name toconfuse anyone, and sinces he bought it long before the current disput between the area's two major dailies, he's not a cyber-piratr or a cyber-squatter. "We obviously don't want to be misleadinfg to anyone, but everyone in the whole Internet worled tries to figure out how to increase traffic to their site and pay big bucks to do Fanning said. While it's yet to be seen how many more eyes will see gVistq thanks to the domain name one thing that does seem clear is the unlikelihoox of a bidding war betweenh the two dailies for ownership ofthe name.
"We're not pursuiny that name," said Andrew Corty, VP of , whicn publishes the St. Petersburg Times. "We have no particular interesrtin it. It was surprising to us that it was even but we've just decided to pass on it."