Domain Name Ripoff?

Francis Net, a freshman in college and a computer expert, browses websites for hours each day. One day, she thinks to herself, “ I can make money registering domain names and selling them for a fortune.” She has recently seen an advertisement for Classic Coke, a cola drink produced and marketed by Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola Company has a famous trademark on the term Classic Coke and has spent millions of dollars advertising this brand and making the term famous throughout the United States and the world. Francis goes to the website www.networksolutions. com, an Internet domain name registration service, to see if the Internet domain name classic coke. com has been taken. She discovers that it is available, so she immediately registers the Internet domain name classic coke.com for herself and pays the $70 registration fee with her credit card. Coca-Cola Company decides to register the Internet domain name classiccoke.com, but when it checks at Network Solutions, Inc.’ s, website, it discovers that Francis Net has already registered the Internet domain name. Coca-Cola Company contacts Francis, who demands  $500,000 for the name.

Coca-Cola Company sues Francis to prevent Francis from using the Internet domain name classic coke. com and to recover it from her under the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).