Falwell sued Lamparello several years ago for ownership of the domain name. The case has wound its way through the courts and on Monday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving the site under Lamparello’s control.
Falwell won his initial lawsuit, but Lamparello appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned the decision. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear Falwell’s appeal of that decision means the 4th Circuit ruling stands.
The 4th Circuit ruled 3-0 in Lamparello’s favor because his site was not created with the intent to deceive and it looked nothing like Falwell’s official site.
“Lamparello's website looks nothing like Rev. Falwell's; indeed, Lamparello has made no attempt to imitate Rev. Falwell's website,” Judge Diana Motz wrote. The site didn’t create a “likelihood of confusion,” so trademark infringement claims were moot.
Even though the site is based on a misspelling of Falwell’s name, the court concluded that alone wasn’t enough to transfer control. As long as there is no intent to deceive the surfer, domain names cannot be transferred on the sole account of misspelling a famous person’s name or trademark.
Falwell is no stranger to litigation. In 1983 Hustler magazine ran a parody of a Campari alcohol ad featuring a fake interview conducted with Falwell, in which he admits his first sexual experience came from incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued, and the jury rejected all his claims but one, which ruled in favor of Falwell on emotional distress.
Flynt then appealed to the Supreme Court and won a unanimous decision in the case, Hustler Magazine, Inc. et al. vs. Jerry Falwell. The ruling held that public figures couldn’t evade First Amendment protections by attempting to recover damages based on emotional distress suffered from a parody of the likeness or personality.
As previously reported in XBIZ, Typo Squatters register domains that are one or two letters off from popular sites. A slip of the finger brings an unsuspecting user to sites that host advertising links, popups and pop-unders.
Squatter domains also misdirect users to unintended URLs or serve as a base of operations for phishing scams by mimicking a legitimate website and prompting the user for personal information. Lamparello’s website doesn’t fall under this category specifically because he is not intentionally using the misspelling of Falwell’s name for those means the court ruled.
