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English teacher Web sites in row over domain names
(Yomiuri Shimbun, The (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 1--TOKYO -- An online service for finding English teachers--a-kaiwa.net--has taken rival FindaNet, Ltd., to court over purchasing and using a similar Internet domain name (a-kaiwa.com) for the alleged purpose of drawing away a-kaiwa.net customers, it was learned Wednesday.
A-kaiwa.net is suing FindaNet over what it says is a violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, and has asked Yokohama District Court to order the company and its former president to release the name.
According to Japan Network Information Center, an organization that collects information on fights over domain names, there are many problems with domain names similar to company names being bought up by Web squatters and people who plan to turn around and resell them. But this may be the first time a company is suing one of its competitors over registering a domain name for the purpose of luring away customers, the center said.
According to the complaint, a-kaiwa.net's president purchased the www.a-kaiwa.net domain name in August 2000, later launching a Web site at that address. However, in December 2002, FindaNet registered a-kaiwa.com, which was used to automatically redirect users to the company's official Web site.
In August, a-kaiwa.net presented its case, demanding 2.3 million in damages and that the domain name be released. As FindaNet's president, an American, had purchased two other similar domain names, including a-kaiwa.tv, the Tokyo-based company attached a request for 1.3 million in further compensation and that these domain names be released, too.
Following the filing of the petition, FindaNet ceased using the domain names, but a representative for the plaintiff said, "They could start using the name again by simply contacting the relevant authorities."
"If this type of illicit action goes unpunished, [the Internet] will be rampant with companies using domain names in this way to steal each other's customers," the plaintiff argued, saying the case highlights issues over domain name registration.
The former president, meanwhile, discounts the a-kaiwa.net argument: "I thought of 'a-kaiwa.net' first. I discussed the idea with a-kaiwa.net's president when we worked together at an English conversation school, and he took it for his own."
A-kaiwa.net launched its business and Web site in May 2001. FindaNet was established a year earlier.
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