Colonial Williamsburg Foundation v. Rogers

Citation: Colonial Williamsburg Found. v. Rogers, Civ. A. No. 4:00CV45 (E.D. Va. Apr. 20, 2000) (order granting temporary restraining order); Civ. A. No. 4:00CV45 (E.D. Va. May 16, 2000) (order granting preliminary injunction).

Factual Background
Plaintiff, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, filed suit for trademark infringement and cybersquatting under the ACPA against Gilinda Rogers to enjoin her from transferring the domain names "colonial-williamsburg.com" and "colonialwilliamsburg.com" to Hotel & Restaurant Employees Local 25, a union entangled in a labor dispute with plaintiff. Defendant, an alleged professional cybersquatter who owns over 1,200 domain names, allowed the union to use the "colonial-williamsburg.com" site to post content about the labor dispute and agreed to transfer both domain names to the union for $1 plus transfer costs. In granting the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction, the court held that: (1) allowing the union to use the domain name "colonial-williamsburg.com," the potential use by others of the domain name "colonialwillaimsburg.com," and defendant's efforts to transfer both domain names to the union would likely cause irreparable harm to plaintiff; (2) plaintiff had a strong likelihood of succeeding on the merits; (3) issuance of the injunctive relief would not cause defendant or the union to suffer any serious harm or consequences; and (4) injunctive relief would protect the public interest by preventing the likelihood of consumer confusion. The preliminary injunction enjoined defendant from cancelling, transferring, or making changes to the domain names "colonial-williamsburg.com" and "colonialwilliamsburg.com," and enjoined defendant from using, allowing others to use, registering, misappropriating, or trafficking in these two domain names or any other domain names or marks "colorably similar" to plaintiff's federally registered "Colonial Williamsburg" trademark.

This page uses content from Finnegan’s Internet Trademark Case Summaries. This entry is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.