A company spends many years building a name for themselves. They work hard building trust in the public as a whole and from their customers. In the past a company would have been protected against another company posing as them to sell a product or service in the real world. Now things have become even more confusing. In this day and age Individuals also have to worry about people stealing their name, and posing as them in the digital realm. As the web grew, and the digital world has become more of our daily lives, one could argue that an individual's digital presence is almost as important as their real world presence. As companies have become more and more reliant on the digital world it is of course logical that disputes of domain names and trademarks will become more and more frequent.
To understand how it is that digital disputes came to be a brief history of how the internet came into being. The internet is a medium for collaboration and interaction for individuals across the world. It has made it possible for people to interact with each other regardless of their geographic location. The internet today is a widespread information infrastructure, however it was not always that way. The first recorded idea of a social interactions could be done using a digital network was in several memos by J.C.R
Licklider at MIT in 1962. He envisioned the “Galactic Network” a concept that a network of interconnecting computers would allow to quickly access data and information from any location. It was essentially a description of the internet of today. In
1965 Thomas Merrill Roberts connected a computer in Massachusetts to a computer in
California using a telephone line. This was the first wide spread network ever

connected. Then in 1966 Roberts went to Darpa to further develop the concept of a computer to computer network. This technology was put into play and published with the completion of the first computer to computer network called ARPANET in 1967.
At this time a man by the name of Klinerock was was working on the idea of packet sharing over computer networks. For this reason UCLA was chosen as the first node to be set up on the ARPANET. In September 1969 the first host computer was connected at UCLA. At the same time Stanford Research Institute under the leadership of
Doug Engelbart had the Augmentation of Human Intellect project. Part of this project was an early hypertext system called NLS. For this reason Stanford was chosen as the second network node. A month after Stanford Research Institute was added to the network the first host to host message was sent from UCLA to Stanford. Also around this time two additional nodes were added one at UC Santa Barbara and one at the University of Utah. By the end of 1969 four computers were connected to the newly formed network and the start of the Internet network was up and running. Over the following years many more computers were added to the network. In 1970 Network Working Group finished the first ARPANET Host to Host protocol. This was called the Network Control
Protocol. Users were able to start developing applications between 1971 and 1972 once the Network Control Protocol was completed and implemented at all of the ARPANET sites. It was in 1972 that the first email application was developed by Ray Tomlinson.
Email was then the network's largest application that was used for over a decade. This was the precursor to the type of activity that we see on the World Wide Web today. It

was the first type of people to people traffic. ARPANET was what lead to today's
Internet.
The internet is an open architecture network. In an open architecture network many individual networks can be developed and designed separately and have their own unique users and processes but can still interact with each other. In 1973 Bob Metcalf with Xerox developed Ethernet technology. This became the predominate network technology. From here as the technology rolled into the 1980’s there was widespread development of LAN networks and also in personal computers that consumers had in their homes. As a result a major shift occurred in how the computers were being used in homes, and began to drive how the internet was used. As more and more individuals began accessing the internet people began to want an easier way to access sites.
Originally individuals had to remember a numeric address to access hosts that had been set up online. As more and more hosts came online they began to assign names to the hosts that users could use to access them, so it was easier for individuals to remember how to access them. Hence the domain name system was started. So by 1985 the internet was well established, and also the grab for domain names had started. (Brief History of the Internet)
Originally since the internet was not used by many people companies were able to easily gain access to sites with their trade names and products. Soon individuals recognized that there was possible profit to be made by gaining access to a site name, and trying to sell it to the company who may want to use it. This is known as

“cybersquatting”. After a while the courts began to see this as an infringement against a company's intellectual property under copyright laws.
Intellectual property is something someone has created with their mind. There are many examples of intellectual property anything from written works, pieces of art, computer programs, to inventions. Pretty much anything someone has created from their own idea and thought process is intellectual property. So that the originator of the work should be the one to benefit from it intellectual property is protected under the law in several ways. A copyright is used to protect literary or art work. A patent protects an invention someone has created. Trademarks separate different companies. Industrial designs protects aesthetic or ornamental aspects of intellectual property. The last protection of intellectual property under the law is geographical indications protect goods that have attributes associated with a particular geographic location. The cybersquatters were infringing on Trademarks that the companies had set into place.(Copyright law)
One of the first rulings on the issues of trademark infringement involving a the use of a web address was Hasbro vs Internet Entertainment Group Limited. This case came to the courts in 1996. What was involved with this case is that the Internet
Entertainment group was using the domain name Candyland.com. Candyland originally was a game made by Hasbro toy company. It is a racing board game for young children.
In the game individuals take turns drawing cards with colors on them and move to the space with the corresponding card. They move through a storyline about getting to the candy king. The game was developed in 1949 by Elenore Abbott. The game was bought

by Milton Bradley who is now owned by Hasbro. So 1996 Candyland was being used in relation to the game for over 50 years. Hasbro (or its predecessor companies) has actually owned a Trademark on the name Candyland since 1951 years. (Candyland
Wikipedia) When Internet Entertainment Group Limited began using the name they were using it for an adult oriented website. Hasbro stated that consumers may confuse the two companies because of the use of the name Candyland. The Internet Entertainment Group
Limited argued that no consumers would confuse the two companies since the products were so different. In that one was a children's game, and one was an sexually explicit website. So on February 5th 1996, in the state of Washington, Hasbro took Internet
Entertainment Group Limited to court for infringement against their Trademark under the
Federal Anti­Dilution act. They first brought a temporary restraining order against the
Internet Entertainment Group to get them to cease and desist using the Candyland name.
The anti­dilution act protects names that are well known in society and therefore considered “famous” . This act protects big names with distinctive qualities known behind them from having their brand diluted by another group with conflicting interests to the company that may cause confusion to consumers in relation to this name. It also prevents companies from using deceptive practices against consumers with the use of a company's name.
The court found in favor of Hasbro and ordered Internet Entertainment Group
Limited to stop using the Candyland name, and move the website to a new web address.
They found that the Candyland name was famous and under the anti­dilution act it was

protected against use by anyone other than the Hasbro game company. They found that
Hasbro showed that there was a probability that the Candyland brand name would be diluted by the adult website owned by the Internet Entertainment Group Limited using it.
Especially in this case since it was being used for a sexually explicit website. One of the reasons for this is when an individual typed in the name candyland to a search engine or web browser one of the fist websites they would be directed to was the adult website
Candyland.com. Hasbro was also given the right to use the Candyland.com web address.
Which in fact they still use today. If you attempt to access the candyland.com web address it will re­direct you to http://www.hasbro.com/en­us/brands/hasbrogames which is the main Hasbro company board game web address. However the Internet
Entertainment Group Limited was allowed to keep a referral page up directed people to their new web address until May 1996. After that time Hasbro would gain all control of the site. Additionally the court ruled that the Internet Entertainment Group Limited had caused irreparable damage to Hasbro by using the Candyland name, and that this caused injury to the Hasbro company. The court stated that the damage caused to Hasbro far outweighed the inconvenience caused to the Internet Entertainment Group by having to cease using the Candyland. However, the court did not stop at just Candyland. They also stated that the Internet Entertainment Group could not even use any references to the
Candyland name, or even any names that sounded like the Candyland name. The Internet
Entertainment Group also had to pull any advertising that they were currently using that used or referenced the Candyland name. It should be mentioned that it was also stated

that Hasbro did not need to pay any kind of penelty to Internet Entertianment Group
Limited for taking over the Candyland.com website, or retention of the use of the
Candyland name. (Louisville edu Hasbro)
This was just the first of many domain name disputes that started becoming common in 1995. In January of 1995 the International Trademark Association had already formed a task force to examine the problem of protecting corporate identities on the internet. In September of 1995 the International Trademark Association board of directors approved a resolution that discussed it position regarding that a domain name can function as part of a trademark, and that domain name use by the company who does not own said trademark can be in violation of trademark rights. It was in July of 1995 that the International Trademark Association released the first of its policies on domain name registration. It stated “
NSI WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF USE,
INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS, OR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND (INCLUDING LOST PROFITS)
REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF NSI HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL
NSI'S MAXIMUM LIABILITY UNDER THE POLICY EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED
($500.00) DOLLARS.” This part of the policy was in all capital letters to accentuate the point. Typically domain names are on a first come first serve basis with the exception, of those that fall under the trademark infringement ruling.

However, just because a company has a famous name does not mean that they are are always going to be awarded the use of a domain name. For example in the case of the
Gateway.com case. George R Ragsdale had been using the domain name for years prior to Gateway 200 becoming the mega giant computer maker that they were. In this case gateway tried to go to court to get George to stop using the gateway.com name and web address since it was infringing upon them under the anti­dilution laws. However, in this case the court ruled in favor of George Since he had been using the website years prior to gateway computers using the name. (Harvard Law)
In conclusion a company may not always purposely infringe on another company's intellectual property, but it does not mean that it would overlooked. If you purposely use another companies name you may find yourself in court defending your decision. Conversely just because a company is large does not mean they can take over a name that you were using first. It is all about who had access to the domain name first to build their brand name that will determine who gets to use the name long term.

Bibliography 1.David D. King. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2015, from https://louisville.edu/faculty/ddking01/cecs311/cases/Hasbro.htm 2. Summaries of Infringement Cases. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2
1, 2015, from https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property00/domain/CaseLinks.html 3.Internet Society. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2015, from http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what­internet/history­internet/brief­history­intern et 4. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet 5.Gateway 2000 v. Gateway.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property00/domain/gateway.html 6.U.S. Copyright Office ­ Information Circular. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2, 2015, from http://copyright.gov/circs/circ1a.html 7. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Land