The National Football League yesterday filed a cybersquatting suit in the Manhattan U.S. District Court against the owner of three gambling-related websites using "NFL" as part of their names. The sites--nfltoday.com, nfltoday.org and nfltoday.net--feature news, links to official NFL sites, gambling information and links to gambling sites.
"The NFL has spent billions of dollars building its name and reputation; it's the most important asset any company has," attorney Gary Gertzog told Bloomberg News. "This was outright theft."
Gertzog said that the unauthorized use of NFL trademarks and links has confused users into believing that the sites are actually sanctioned by the league. A disclaimer, however, is shown on the sites.
The sites' owner, Ken Miller of Clearlake Park, California, told reporters that his sites were created out of his love for the game. "I worked hard for a couple of years. I've really enjoyed the Web site and now I come to find maybe I've done something wrong. From that standpoint, I feel absolutely terrible,' Miller said. He hadn't spoken to an attorney yet.
The NFL claims that Miller has fueled the fire by receiving revenue from gambling ads that flank links to pages on the official NFL site.
The NFL reportedly offered Miller $270 for the three sites in October. Miller counter-offered $120,000, but no deal was struck. Instead, the NFL filed the suit under the Anti-Cybersquatting
Consumer Protection Act enacted last month. Violators of the cybersquatting act can be fined up to $100,000 per site.
Miller owns other sports-related domain names, such as NBAtoday.com and NHLtoday.com, but hasn't used them.
The league wants the court to declare the sites in violation of federal and state law, and wants the site to drop the NFL trademark from its content. Miller told reporters that he has removed NFL trademarks from his site already.
Additionally, the suit demands that the domain names be given to the NFL and asks for payment of damages.