Domain name – Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy – Service mark – Patent and Trademark – Identical – Confusingly similar – Bad faith registration – Bad faith use.

Complainant was registrant of United States Patent and Trademark and service mark.  Respondent registered the domain name, CNNHEADLINENEWS.COM.  Complainant alleged that the registered name was identical to its registered marks, and that the Respondent registered the domain name in bad faith.

Held, Name Transferred to Complainant.

Complainant must establish both bad faith registration and bad faith use.

The domain name CNNHEADLINENEWS.COM is identical or confusingly similar to the service mark and trademark, CNN and HEADLINE NEWS, registered and used by the Complainant.  The Respondent has no legitimate rights in respect of the domain name.  This is bad faith registration.

The Complainant is registered to use and has exclusively used the service marks, CNN, HEADLINE NEWS, and HEADLINE NEWS for more than two decades to identify its news and information services.  The Respondent offered to sell the registered domain name to the Complainant for a sum well in excess of any reasonable out-of-pocket costs related to the name. The Respondent put no valid defence forward. 

The Respondent also offered to sell other wrongfully registered marks to valid owners of properly registered names.  Additionally, Respondent was using the name at issue to host banner advertisements intended to solicit traffic to its websites and the sites of several other parties.  Clearly, these practices constitute bad faith use.

Policies referred to

Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, adopted by ICANN on October 24, 1999
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
Landham Act

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS
The above entitled matter came on for an Administrative Hearing this date, before the undersigned on the Complaint of Cable News Network, LP, LLLP, ("Complainant") against Respondent, Manchester Trading ("Respondent"). This matter has been brought under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution policy adopted by the Internet Corporation for assigned names and numbers ("ICANN") and the rules for Uniform Name Dispute Resolution policy adopted by ICANN on October 24, 1999. Complainant is represented by David J. Stewart, Esquire, Alston & Bird, 1201 W. Peachtree Street, Altanta, GA 30309-3424; telephone number (404) 881-7000; facsimile no. (404) 881-7777. Respondent, Manchester Trading's, address is given as 634 Center Street, Manchester, Conn. 06040; telephone number: (860) 643-2226, facsimile no.: (860) 649-5070.
Respondent's contact as charged in the Complaint herein is given as Mike Jameson, Manchester Trading, 634 Center Street, Manchester, Conn. 06040. 
Finding the Complaint to be in administrative compliance in accord with paragraph 4(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution, paragraph 4 of the Supplemental Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution policy, and in accordance with Rules paragraph 4(c), the formal date of commencement of the administrative proceedings was established as February 8, 2000. Accordingly, pursuant therewith, the Respondent was notified that it had until March 2, 2000, to submit a response. 
From the unrefuted record, the undersigned finds the following facts: 
The domain name which is the subject of the Complaint is CNNHEADLINENEWS.COM registered the Respondent with Network Solutions, Inc.
Complainant, Cable News Network LP, LLP ("CNN") is one of the largest electronic news and information companies in the world. It has for more than two decades exclusively used the service marks CNN, HEADLINE NEWS, and HEADLINE NEWS to identify its news and information services. Those services are and have been available to more than one billion people worldwide through a number of cable and satellite television networks (CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN International, CNNfn, CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN en Espanol).
Complainant has submitted sworn statements to the effect that the service mark CNN was adopted as early as 1980 and the subsequent marks CNN Headline News and Headline News as early as 1982. Said marks have been continuously used by it throughout the world to identify its news and information services. Additionally, the undersigned has been afforded certified copies of registration by the United States Patent and Trademark Office granting to the Complainant the exclusive right to use the marks CNN (stylized) and HEADLINE NEWS. The registrations are both valid and incontestable pursuant to Title 15 U.S.C. ß 1115(b), and constitute conclusive evidence of Complainant's exclusive right to use said marks in commerce in the United States.

Additionally, the record reflects that other trademark registration offices around the world have recognized CNN's exclusive rights in the CNN marks by virtue of said offices having granted registration marks.
The record also reflects what would appear to be a Response to the Complaint dated March 2, 2000, handwritten on a sheet of paper with a printed heading styled: Manchester Trading, 634 Center Street, Manchester, CT 06040, phone 860/ 643-2226; fax 860/ 649-5070; www.ManchesterTrading.com. The words contained thereon are handwritten and reflect on the bottom what appears to be a signature "M. L. Jamer," accompanied by what appears to be a sheet of a printed form used for the filing of a domain name dispute complaint, as utilized in the instant case. On one sheet is the hand-printed word "Answer." That sheet is accompanied by four or five additional ones that appear to have been blank, which now display hand-printed statements. These documents which the undersigned assumes to be a response to the Complaint, contain one or more conclusory statements such as "No bad faith, no extortions, domain name not for sale." The sheets contain a number of additional statements such as, "No bad faith, no reselling, not for sale, we have no exact trademark." Additionally, one sheet contains the hand-printed words: "A. Unknown. B. Unknown. C. ," as well as other verbiage which the undersigned accepts as a denial of ever having "anyone call CNN." None of the response, consisting of the above-described papers, constitutes a valid defense to the Complaint.
The evidence reflects that the illegal use of the marks in issue came to the Complainant's attention by an effort on the part of the Respondent to sell the infringing domain name to it for a sum well in excess of any reasonable out-of-pocket costs related to the name. The offer by Respondent to Complainant was, as one would expect, refused, whereupon the amount of the offer to sell was substantially reduced and refused as well.
The undersigned's conclusion that the Respondent has acted in bad faith is solidified by the fact that the evidence discloses that other valid owners of properly registered names were solicited by the Respondent or his or its emissaries seeking to purchase marks which had been wrongfully registered by Respondent and were similar to what I find to be its intended customers.
Additionally, the evidence reflects that at the time of the offer to sell the infringing domain name, Respondent was using said name to host banner advertisements intended to solicit traffic to its websites and the sites of several other parties.
The record reflects a substantial number of listings by Jameson, Manchester Trading and other presumed commercial entities, all of which appear to be in association with Jameson. 
The testimony taken in a deposition in connection with a claim against Jameson and another individual describes him as being in a "viable internet" business. The testimony further revealed that as of November 1999 no effort was made to market products on or advertise in support of those domain sites.
The illegal use of the marks in issue came to the Complainant's attention by an effort of the part of the Respondent to sell the infringing domain name to it for $8,875. The evidence shows that at least one other valid owner of properly registered names was solicited by the Respondent or its emissary to purchase marks which had been wrongfully registered by Respondent.
The named Respondent, Manchester Trading, one of whose principals is Mike Jameson, who appears to have allegedly engaged, through the Manchester Trading Company, in conduct, which if true, is typical of the very conduct that Congress by its recent enactment of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Pb.L. 106-113 ("ACPA"). That Act was designed primarily to combat trademark cyber piracy, and represents a new force against individuals who, as in the instant matter, act in bad faith, register, traffic in, or use domain names that are identical to, confusingly similar to, or, in some cases, dilutive of existing marks.
The conduct by the Respondent not only constitutes bad faith, but appears to be a violation of the Landham Act, 15 U.S.C. ß 1225(c), as well as U.S.C. ßß 1114(1) and 1125(a).
For the reasons herein stated and pursuant to the authority vested in the undersigned, it is
DIRECTED that the registration of the domain name CNNHEADLINENEWS.COM be forthwith transferred to Cable News Network LP, LLLP ("CNN").
The undersigned certifies that he has acted independently and has no known conflict in serving as the arbitrator in this proceeding.
Robert R. Merhige, Jr.
U.S.D.J. (Ret.)