UCLA blocks trademark from adulteration

Wednesday, May 6, 1998

UCLA blocks trademark from adulteration

INTERNET: Pornographic web site targeted to stop using
university’s name

By Andy Shah

Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA’s trademark has traditionally been associated with
academics, athletics, and, for the past month, pornography.

At the end of March, university officials were notified about a
pornographic web site called www.UCLA.com., which featured links to
sites such as the "Sex Roulette."

UCLA officials claimed that this site was breaking trademark
laws by associating the university’s name with the site. However,
that site cannot be accessed now. At press time, web browsers were
refusing the UCLA.com address.

UCLA was first notified about the site at the end of March, said
Michael Stone, director of communications and marketing strategies.
UCLA received an e-mail from an alumnus who said that a group was
selling the UCLA domain name.

Stone’s office, which handles web administration for UCLA’s
homepage, then sent a "cease and desist" letter to the site owners,
giving them 15 working days to stop the violation.

During that period, a different group registered the site under
their name. Stone’s office was notified about this on April 20. The
situation was then handed over to the campus counsel.

UCLA.com is registered with a San Diego-based company called
"Users, Computers, Logins & Applications," or – UCLA. They did
not respond to queries by The Bruin.

UCLA.com provided links to hard-core porn sites. Some links led
to sites maintained by Xpics Publishing, Inc. However, Xpics claims
they are not in charge of UCLA.com.

"Our company doesn’t own or operate such a site," said the
director of marketing for the company.

UCLA has received many complaints about the site, including one
from a mother who was searching for college information for her
child.

Like others, she may have inadvertently typed ".com" instead of
".edu" as part of the web address. ".Com" is used for commercial
sites, and ".edu" is used for education sites.

There are two possible reasons why the site would have been
breaking federal and/or state laws, said Eugene Volokh, a professor
who specializes in cyberlaw at the UCLA School of Law.

First, he said, it might have confused people into thinking that
UCLA endorsed or sponsored the site.

Secondly, "It blocks UCLA from a valuable way of exploiting its
own trademark, something that the law calls ‘trademark dilution,’"
he said.

For example, if UCLA wanted to build a commercial web site, the
UCLA.com address would already be taken.

Although there are generally no statutes setting up a special
law for the Internet, Volokh said that general laws, like trademark
law, do apply to cyberspace.

"Some say there is no law in cyberspace, but of course there
is," he said.

"You can’t threaten people or infringe copyrights or infringe
trademarks in cyberspace any more than you can anywhere else."

A case pending right now, Panavision International vs. Toeppen,
is similar to the UCLA situation. Toeppen set up a web site called
Panavision.com, and Panavision claims that Toeppen is infringing
upon their trademarked name.

For a month, officials have been trying fruitlessly to persuade
the site owners to disassociate UCLA’s name with the site, but site
owners have not responded.

University attorneys would have considered legal action, but the
site was taken down just in time.

"I’m delighted the page is unaccessible because the subject
matter should not be linked to our name," said campus counsel
Patricia Jasper.

However, Jasper said that the site owners still have not
contacted her, so it is not absolutely sure that the site went down
because of UCLA’s efforts.

UCLA officials will continue to monitor the web to see that the
site does not come up again.

Also, Jasper said that the university would like to take
possession of the site to ensure that UCLA’s trademark is not
violated again.

"In no way, shape or form should (the site) be associated with
UCLA," Jasper said.