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72 U. Cin. L. Rev. 95 (2003-2004)
Seizing Domain Names to Enforce Judgments: Looking Back to Look to the Future

handle is hein.journals/ucinlr72 and id is 105 raw text is: SEIZING DOMAIN NAMES TO ENFORCEJUDGMENTS: LOOKING BACK TO LOOK TO THE FUTURE Juliet M Moringiello Out of the old fields must spring and grow the new coM.' I. INTRODUCTION The Internet has changed the way people communicate and do business. As business migrates to the Internet, new words, new rights, and new wrongs are created. One of the challenges faced by lawyers, judges, and legislators is determining whether the rights created by the movement of business to the Internet are truly new rights that need new governing laws or variations of existing rights to which existing legal concepts are easily adapted. Today we watch the law struggle to adapt traditional contract law to electronic transactions,2 to mold the action of trespass to chattels to cover unauthorized use of a web site,3 and to find an electronic equivalent to negotiable instruments.4 One of the new rights with which the law struggles today is the Internet domain name. A domain name is the identifier used by individuals to find specific web sites. Domain names are of great value: the easier it is for potential customers to find a company's web site, the more business the web site owner will likely receive. People fight over these names all the time. Trademark owners and famous people pursue cybersquatters for wrongfully appropriating their marks or names.5 Sometimes, more than one individual or organization has the right to use a name and the parties negotiate a transfer of the name.6 Some * Associate Professor, Widener University School of Law. Many thanks to my research assistants, Myrissa Smith, University ofPittsburgh School of Law class of2003 and Brian Garman, Widener University School of Law class of 2004. I. SIR EDWARD COKE, PREFACE TO THE FIRST PART OF THE REPORTS OF SIR EDWARD COKE KT (1727). 2. Seegeneraly Robert A. Hillman &JeffreyJ. Rachlinski, Standard Form Contracting in the Electronic Age, 77 N.Y.U. L. REV. 429 (2002). 3. See eBay, Inc. v. Bidder's Edge, Inc., 100 F. Supp. 2d 1058, 1067 (N.D. Cal. 2000). 4. See generaly RONALDJ. MANN &JANE K. WINN, ELECrRONIC COMMERCE 580-586 (2002). 5. For instance, the singer Madonna brought an arbitration proceeding against a pornographer who registered the name madonna.com for his pornographic web site. Madonna Ciccone p/k/a Madonna v. Dan Parisi and Madonna.com, Case No. D2000-0847 (WIPO Arb. & Med. Ctr. Oct. 2000), at http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2000/d2000-O847.html. 6. In September 2000, the Philadelphia law firm of Morgan Lewis transferred its domain name, www.mlb.com (the firm had been known as Morgan, Lewis and Bockius) to Major League Baseball, which was one of the firm's clients. It was reported that Morgan Lewis did not receive any payment from Major League Baseball for the transfer. See Morgan Lewis Pitches Web Address to Major League Baseball at http://old.

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