Bell Atlantic is attempting to use reverse domain name hijacking to prevent the use of critical domain names. Verizon is the new name of the Bell Atlantic-GTE merger. BA pre-emptively registered "verizonsucks.com" So an organization registered "verizonreallysucks.com" Showing a rather pathetic lack of a sense of humor, not to mention a lack of better things to do with her time, Bell Atlantic's lawyer Sarah Deutsch sent a letter that asserted, among other things: "your registration and/or use of these domain names infringes Bell Atlantic�s valuable trademark rights in the �Verizon� mark and violates the new Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (the �Anticybersquatting Act�)Accordingly, unless you immediately agree to take the steps set forth below, including ceasing any use of the �Verizon� and �Bell Atlantic� marks and transferring the domain name VERIZONREALLYSUCKS.COM to Bell Atlantic, Bell Atlantic intends to proceed under the federal Trademark Act, including the Anticybersquatting Act, by filing suit to protect its rights in federal court." I hope I, too, will be privileged to get such a letter, since the label of this message also uses a trademarked term. See the article here http://www.2600.com/news/2000/0508.html --MM
