A US court has claimed jurisdiction over a domain name dispute
between a Canadian company and a Canadian individual on the grounds
that the domain names in question were registered with Network
Solutions, the Virginia-based registrar.
A US court has claimed jurisdiction over a domain name dispute
between a Canadian company and a Canadian individual on the grounds
that the domain names in question were registered with Network
Solutions, the Virginia-based registrar.
Elliott Salmons of Toronto registered the names technodome.com
and destinationtechnodome.com with Network Solutions. Salmons set
up his site at Technodome.com as a “theatre technicians’ resumé
page.”
A company called Heathmount AE Corp., owned by one of Canada’s
most powerful property dealing families, the Reichmanns, took legal
action because it owns registered trade marks for the word
"Technodome," the name of a pleasure dome development in Montreal
that will open in 2004.
Heathmount wanted to use US anti-cybersquatting legislation that
allows it to sue domain names, rather than their registered owner.
Accordingly, Salmons only learned of the case when he read about
the court’s first order in the press.
Salmons’ lawyer, acting for the domain names, asked that the
case be dismissed and heard in Canada because he argued it was a
more appropriate forum. However, the Virginia court took the view
that Canada lacked suitable laws to deal with the case.
The Virgina court said: “a Canadian court would be less familiar
with the provisions of the [US anti-cybersquatting legislation]
than this court.” It added that if the case was decided in Canada,
a judgment could be difficult to enforce in the US and dismissed
the argument that Mr Salmons could not afford to fight the case in
Virginia, saying he had not shown “it will literally be financially
impossible to litigate in this district.”
