[wg-b] Verizon really sucks

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Bell Atlantic is attempting to use reverse domain name hijacking
to prevent the use of critical domain names.

Verizon is the new name of the Bell Atlantic-GTE merger.
BA pre-emptively registered "verizonsucks.com"
So an organization registered "verizonreallysucks.com"

Showing a rather pathetic lack of a sense of humor, not to
mention a lack of better things to do with her time, Bell
Atlantic's lawyer Sarah Deutsch sent a letter that asserted,
among other things:

"your registration and/or use of these domain names infringes
Bell Atlantic’s valuable trademark rights in the “Verizon” mark
and violates the new Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection
Act (the “Anticybersquatting Act”)Accordingly, unless you
immediately agree to take the steps set forth below, including
ceasing any use of the “Verizon” and “Bell
Atlantic” marks and transferring the domain name
VERIZONREALLYSUCKS.COM to Bell Atlantic, Bell
Atlantic intends to proceed under the federal Trademark Act,
including the Anticybersquatting Act, by filing suit to protect
its
rights in federal court."

I hope I, too, will be privileged to get such a letter, since the
label of this message also uses a trademarked term.

See the article here
http://www.2600.com/news/2000/0508.html

--MM