Worldsport Networks v. ArtInternet

‘‘‘Citation:’’’ Worldsport Networks Ltd. v. ArtInternet S.A., 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6080 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 28, 1999), amended by 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 3, 2000).

Factual Background
Plaintiff is an Irish corporation responsible for maintaining the official website of the General Association of International Sports Federations, located at "worldsport.com." Defendant registered, used, and offered to sell the domain name "worldsports.com." On March 4, 1999, the parties stipulated to an injunction preventing defendant's further infringement of the WORLDSPORT mark. The order also required NSI to cancel defendant's registration for the domain name "worldsports.com" and transfer it to plaintiff, and to not permit the registration of a domain name consisting of "any similar word, name or term by any party other than Plaintiff." NSI intervened in the proceeding, claiming the court should modify the latter part of the order because compliance would cause NSI substantial hardship and that NSI had not consented as plaintiff had claimed. The court agreed, stating that the part of the order requiring NSI to police all domain-name applications for names similar to the "worldsport.com" name placed an unreasonable burden on NSI. Accordingly, the court amended its order to specifically list terms that were deemed similar to plaintiff's name, requiring NSI to "not permit the registration by Defendants of any words, names or terms containing the following string of characters: worldsport, worldsports, world-sport, world-sports." In a subsequent amended order issued on January 3, 2000, the court deleted the disputed part of the order completely.

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