Finding "an appropriate balance between trademark law and attendant policy concerns," court adopts magistrate's recommendation of summary judgment against defendant Internet service provider and accused "domain name hijacker," who registered domain names incorporating the trademarks and trade names of numerous companies in an apparent effort to profit from reselling the registrations to the companies in question. Toeppen's registration of the domain name "intermatic.com" was found to violate federal and Illinois anti-dilution laws. Toeppen's intent to leverage sale of the domain name to Intermatic was sufficient to meet the "use in commerce" requirement of the Lanham Act's anti-dilution provision; and the mark INTERMATIC was well enough known within its industry to meet the "famous mark" requirement of the same statute. (See also Panavision v. Toeppen and American Standard Inc. v. Toeppen.)
Report of Magistrate at http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/cases/intermat.html
Keywords: Cybersquatting, Trademark, Domain Names
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