NCAA Tries To Bully Fan Discussion Site Into Handing Over Its Domain Name
from the how-about-ncaasucks.com? dept
Reader Eileen writes in to alert us that the NCAA -- known for its overly restrictive views at times -- is trying to bully the owner of the discussion website NCAAbbs.com into handing over its domain names. The NCAA is, not surprisingly, complaining that any domain name that includes NCAA automatically should belong to the NCAA. Of course, it's not so simple. While the NCAA does have a trademark on its name, that doesn't mean it gets automatic control over any site that uses NCAA in its domain name. The NCAAbbs site is clearly not associated with the NCAA and is pretty clearly just a fan discussion site. The owner of the site says that he's planning to fight the demand, and hopefully he can succeed. While the domain dispute process can be a bit arbitrary, the courts have often realized that a trademark holder does not get full control over every domain that mentions them. Hopefully, that will be the case here as well. Of course, the one area where it's pretty clear that you can keep such a domain name is in cases of "sucks sites." So perhaps if the NCAA wins this, the owner can simple relocate to NCAAreallysucks.com.More to the point, however, you have to wonder what the NCAA thinks it's doing here. You have a site that has been set up to promote the NCAA and all of the various sports teams within the NCAA. This is an incredibly useful promotional tool that the NCAA should be celebrating and helping rather than attacking. Why do so many organizations think it's smart to threaten, attack or sue their biggest fans?
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Filed Under: domain names, ncaa, trademark
Companies: ncaa
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Organizations that attack their fans don't typically do it just to be "jerks", they are often FORCED into doing it to protect their copyright to the use of their name.
Disney is well-known for "attacking" schools and other completely non-threatening users of their "intellectual property" and send "Cease and desist" orders so as to make sure that when they REALLY DO want to go after someone, they can demonstrate that they have been consistent in protecting their copyright.
-avi
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www.*NCAA*.*
where * is a wildcard and can be none or any combination of valid domain name characters.
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It's why you can have a national A1 moving company and an National A1 advertising company, both with trademarked names, and nothing either can do about each other.
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I thought the joke was obvious, but oh well, I must be a geek.
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NCAA
or the Northern Canadian Arctic Association?
How about Nixon Clinton Ambiguity Association?
or Never Claim Any Acronym ....
Real ones:
NCAA National Clinical Assessment Authority (UK)
NCAA Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority
NCAA National Council of Arab Americans
NCAA National Civil Aviation Authority
NCAA New College Alumni Association
NCAA Non-Nuclear Consumables Annual Analysis
NCAA NATO Civil Airlift Agency (US DoD)
NCAA NATO Civil Aviation Agency
NCAA National Command Authority Aircraft
NCAA NATO Civil Air Augmentation
NCAA National Council for Accreditation and Attestation (Republic of Moldova)
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Maybe its just the NCAA showing solidarity for the MPAA.
Even if the law says you can. no one should be allowed to copyright/trademark/patent an acronym.
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You Always Hurt The Ones You Love
Because if you can't attack your fans, who can you attack? No one else would stand for it.
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Acronyms
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