Companies do battle with those who own Web site addresses that use their businesses' names.
By JOHN BALZ
Published July 17, 2003
TAMPA - Www.greeniguana.com is up for sale, but not by the bar and grill's owner. Ditto www.icecoldair.com so don't send your offers to the auto repair shop's home office in Clearwater.
Www.newks.com, seemingly named for the Channelside district cafe, was up for sale as recently as two weeks ago but may be off the block for now.
All three Web addresses are owned by Web designer Robert "Bud" Groover of Tampa, who is offering them to one and all, including the sound-alike businesses.
Critics call it "cybersquatting," a practice in which an individual claims a Web address named for an established company such as www.unitedairlines.com and holds it for "ransom" by the airline. The practice was banned by Congress in 1999.
But Groover, 39, said he is a Web designer who simply had the good sense to stake a claim on some Web addresses along the way.
"I was never in the business of buying and selling Web addresses. I was in the business of building Web sites," he wrote in a series of e-mail responses to questions. "Who knew how important a Web address would become? I certainly didn't."
Either way the practice has infuriated some owners who think an Internet address with their name on it should be their property.
"I've already spent all of my emotional anger on Bud Groover," said Kathleen Bambery, the regional manager for Green Iguana, in recounting a past business dispute.
About seven years ago, Green Iguana hired Groover to register the domain name www.greeniguana.com and build a Web site, said Bambery.
According to Bambery, Groover instead registered it under his own company's name, Channelside Media. It owns and operates www.channelside.com a Web site with information and ads about restaurants and other attractions in Tampa's Channelside district.
Groover offered to sell the name to the Green Iguana for $10,000, said Bambery. The restaurant decided instead to build a site at www.greeniguana.net
Groover said he went "overboard" for Green Iguana, building a Web site at discounted prices. Green Iguana then moved the site to another hosting company while not settling its debt to Groover, he said.
Groover wrote that in the years that he has maintained www.greeniguana.com - although the site was not in operation Wednesday - he has received more than 500 e-mailed questions ranging from "Where can I buy a Green Iguana?" to "What are the signs of a sick lizard?"
"Green Iguana is a lizard, not a bar in Tampa," he added. "Who is to say that the Green Iguana Bar & Grill has a right to greeniguana.com?"
The issue of what constitutes a copyright and a cybersquatter is an open question among many online experts.
Critics point to Procter & Gamble, which owns the rights to domain names such as www.toiletpaper.comwww.badbreath.com and www.headache.com as an example of a corporate giant legally hoarding domains that may or may not be trademarks.
It can be a difficult issue for courts to resolve as well.
In 2001 a judge in Virginia stripped www.vw.net from the small Internet service provider Virtual Works and gave it to carmaker Volkswagen.
The dispute over the Web name www.newks.com began because Newk's owners registered www.newk.com instead. This spring, the restaurant filed a lawsuit accusing Groover of "wrongful acquisition" of www.newks.com and seeking up to $100,000 for lost business.
Co-owner Gary Pittman said a preliminary settlement could come soon but declined to comment on the case. According to court documents, Groover offered to sell the site name to Newk's for $7,500 - about 250 times the original registration price.
When Newk's declined the offer, Groover made a counter-offer: He would sell the name for $3,000, plus a $100 monthly fee, $200 worth of food and beverages and the right to place signs for www.channelside.com on Newk's property.
Groover wrote that Newk's has "absolutely no right or claim" to the address, which he has owned for more than four years. The cafe "has become greedy and is trying "Reverse Domain Name Hijacking,' " by filing a lawsuit, he wrote.
Groover wrote that he has tried to settle the matter in good faith and that the restaurant benefited from traffic on www.channelside.com
In 1999, Congress strengthened a trademark holder's ability to claim a Web address from an individual and to seek monetary damages. Within a year dozens of major companies filed lawsuits and settled more than 500 arbitration cases.
An America's Cup team in New Zealand won an injunction against the owners of www.americascup.com The former Denver telephone giant US West went after a Colorado duo sitting on www.18004uswest.com and www.8004uswest.com In the largest cybersquatting crackdown, the International, U.S. and Salt Lake City Olympic committees filed a lawsuit seeking to claim 1,804 domain names related to the Games.
Last year, the St. Petersburg Times bought www.stpetetimesforum.com from an individual, saying it would be faster and cheaper than trying to win the naming rights in court. Details of that agreement were not made public.
But many smaller companies are deterred from trying to claim an address because of litigation costs, which can run in the tens of thousands of dollars.
One organization that has reached an accommodation with Groover is the Florida Aquarium.
Groover, who works from his home in South Tampa, owns www.flaquarium.com He sends out blast e-mails with information about the aquarium, and he offers links to the aquarium's own www.flaquarium.org from the site. In return, Channelside Media signs are displayed on the aquarium's touch tank.
"I don't look at the negative: "Oh, I wish I had that name,' " said Sue Ellen Richardson, the director of marketing and public relations at the aquarium. "I look at what I get out of the partnership. In an odd, ironic sense, it works to benefit me for now."
Despite what the law says, Richardson says Groover showed foresight.
"Bud is a good businessman," she said. "He saw opportunities that others weren't taking advantage of. You can't blame a guy for seeing that."
Groover is also the owner of www.ybor.com which he had hoped to turn into a Web portal like channelside.com with information about shops and restaurants. Because of other business projects he has put that site up for sale.
- Times Researcher John Martin contributed to this report. John Balz can be reached at 813 269-5313 or at balz@sptimes.com
