Reprinted from Daily Press, Wednesday, May 17, 2000:
by Deborah Straszheim
Daily Press
NORFOLK, Virginia — The woman who owns the Internet addresses "colonialwilliamsburg.com" and "colonial-williamsburg.com" won't be able to use either Web site, at least for now.
A U.S. District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday preventing Gilinda Rogers from using the sites and ordered her to transfer registration of both domain names to the court. In April, Rogers tried to give the sites to the hotel and restaurant workers union involved in a labor dispute with Colonial Williamsburg.
Rogers said she bought the domain names to reserve them in case Colonial Williamsburg ever needed them. She says she was willing to turn them over to Colonial Williamsburg for reimbursement of her costs.
But the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation said Rogers tried to sell the sites at a high price. The foundation said she doesn't have a right to the names because Colonial Williamsburg is a registered trademark.
Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ruled Tuesday that allowing Rogers to use the sites would cause harm to Colonial Williamsburg. Smith's injunction will remain in place until a full trial is held. A date has not been scheduled.
"You cannot go and take someone else's trademark and make it your domain name and try to make a profit from it. And that's exactly what Ms. Rogers did," Judge Smith said.
During the preliminary hearing Monday and Tuesday, lawyers for Colonial Williamsburg tried to portray Rogers as a shrewd businesswoman who buys Internet addresses to make money.
Joseph Kearfott, attorney for Colonial Williamsburg, said Rogers registers domain names regardless of trademark laws.
For example, he said, she registered the name "thedenverpost.com" as her own Internet site even though the newspaper in Denver didn't give her permission. He also said she used the MasterCard logo to take applications for credit cards, without a license to accept applications for the company.
At one point, Rogers told the court that she has paid $80,000 to register about 1,000 domain names. But she said she isn't trying to make money.
"My goal is to make more friends," Rogers said.
Rogers said she cares about her community and wants to save the names in case someone needs them.
John Bacon, general counsel and corporate secretary for Colonial Williamsburg, said Rogers offered to transfer the domain name "colonialwilliamsburg.com" for a price. In separate letters from different lawyers, Bacon said she first asked for about $2,500 to transfer the domain name and then later asked for $10,400.
Rogers said she originally offered to transfer both names for her registration fee of about $150 but Colonial Williamsburg turned the offer down.
Deborah Straszheim can be reached at 221-7220 or by e-mail at dstraszheim@dailypress.com
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