Squatters’ wrongs

Megan Murphy, who runs a for-profit site selling digital artworks, hopes she soon joins the list of Spokane businesses that have recovered company Web addresses from cyber squatters.

She’s one of dozens of regional firms who have battled over a trademarked Web address through legal action or dispute resolution. Their success relies on the system of rules already established over who can use a Web name as well as knowing when to go to court to get results.

Six years ago, Paul Fish, the successful outdoor equipment retailer, had to wrestle the domain MountainGear.com away from an Eastern European man who had registered it before Fish could.

Last year, Red Lion Hotels Corp. endured a similar battle, turning to a regulatory body that decides Web address conflicts. The Spokane hotel chain, after a short two-month process, won the rights to use RedLionHotels.com.

Ironically the person who had claimed that name before Red Lion, Croatian citizen Damir Kruzicevic, was the same man who had squatted on Fish’s Mountain Gear address.

In separate actions, Fish and Red Lion officials each used a process set up by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In both cases, the regulatory ruled Kruzicevic had no right to use the domain names.

The regulatory body, WIPO — the World Intellectual Property Organization — ruled Mountain Gear and Red Lion are the only ones entitled to use the domains.

But Murphy, a 37-year-old Spokane mother and visual artist, has a slightly different problem. She’s contesting the use of an address that is similar but not the same as the one she’s using.

She uses Artocracy.org as a for-profit visual arts site that helps sell digital prints for more than 80 artists across the country.

Murphy is fighting Bob Hornsby, based in Philadelphia, the registered owner of Artocracy.com and Artocracy.net.

In recent months, Murphy has warned Hornsby that his Web site at Artocracy.com infringes a federal trademark she has for the name. She’s threatened a lawsuit against him for the alleged infringement.

Hornsby, in an e-mail reply, said he intends to resolve the matter out of court. He noted, however, he bought his domain address well before Murphy registered hers.

Even so, Keyes contends Artocracy.com violates Murphy’s trademark, which she acquired in August 2006.

“This is a classic case of trademark infringement,” said Spokane attorney Michael Keyes, who is representing Murphy.

Murphy said Hornsby originally wrongfully added her own Artocracy logo on his site, and then had users believe they were visiting her site. She believes but can’t prove he was also helping sell visual art after he launched Artocracy.com, several months after she launched Artocracy.org in late 2004.

Hornsby’s site no longer has her Artocracy logo. He’s also changed it into a blog, according to Murphy.

If Hornsby’s Artocracy.com only sold items unrelated to visual art — hamburgers, for instance — Murphy would not have a basis to sue him for infringement, Keyes said.

“In the end the trademark protection laws come down to the question, is the consumer confused by someone using a similar name,” Keyes added. “We just want him to stop using our name for that purpose.”

People find out owners of a domain registration firms such as GoDaddy.com. Three years ago, that’s how Murphy first learned Hornsby had acquired the Artocracy.com address, but not Artocracy.org. She registered the name she wanted and, in late 2004, launched her site.

Murphy said she had contacted Hornsby before launching the site and offered to buy it from him for several thousand dollars.

“He seemed interested at first, but then decided not to sell it,” she noted.

The case of RedLionHotels.com shows that even publicly traded companies don’t always cross their digital t’s. When the hotel company launched online services back in the 1990s, it used West Coast Hospitality as its corporate name and directed Web traffic to RedLion.com.

In 2005, after it re-branded itself as Red Lion Hotels, company officials learned Kruzicevic had that address.

Red Lion’s attorney Tom McKeirnan said Red Lion sent Kruzicevic a cease-and-desist letter but got no reply. The company never offered the Croatian any money for the address.

“You never want to offer a payment like that, since it looks like paying ransom for something you see as rightfully your own,” he added.

In the summer of 2006 Spokane attorney Steven Bertone filed the appeal on behalf of Red Lion. It took just two months before WIPO ruled in the Red Lion’s favor. A news release then noted it was the 25,000th domain dispute handled by the WIPO.

Since 1999 when the WIPO began resolving disputes, the most-famous Web domain battle involved Madonna. In 2000 the singer regained Madonna.com, evicting a New York man who had squatted on that address.