Date:         Wed, 1 Sep 1999 02:32:15 +0200
Reply-To:     Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Per Lindgren <lindgre@ONLINE.NO>
Subject:      Internet firm sues Volkswagen over Web site name
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

From www.auto.com

PerL
87 Syncro 112i

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    DETROIT, Aug 30 (Reuters) - An Internet service provider under
pressure from Volkswagen AG to
stop using the Web address www.vw.net has filed suit in a Virginia
federal court in a bid to block an
attempt to reassign the domain name.

     Virtual Works Inc., based in Herndon, Va., filed the civil lawsuit
on Friday in U.S. District Court in
Alexandria. Va. It is seeking $1 million in damages from the German
automaker. It also sued Network
Solutions Inc. (NSI), which until recently enjoyed a monopoly in
assigning domain names ending in .com,
.org and .net.

     Virtual Works claims NSI and Volkswagen have no legal justification
for challenging its use of
www.vw.net, which it said NSI assigned to the Internet service provider
in 1996. A year earlier, VW
was assigned the address http://www.vw.com, leaving http://www.vw.net
unclaimed.

     Virtual Works alleges a reassignment of the name would constitute a
breach of contract and an illegal
confiscation on NSI's part. In addition, the Internet service provider
alleges that VW is improperly
interfering with its economic relationships by seeking the Web address
for itself.

     Volkswagen spokesman Tony Fouladpour said the company had not seen
the lawsuit, but it intended to
pursue its claim.

     "We are going to protect our trademark, especially when it comes to
domain names," he said.

     Fouladpour added Virtual Works only came to Volkswagen's attention
when it tried to sell the domain
name back to the automaker last year.

     Virginia-based NSI said it does not discuss ongoing litigation.

     Earlier this year, Volkswagen asked NSI to take back the domain
name from Virtual Works, charging
that the site violated its trademark, which includes the letters VW. NSI
told Virtual Works in a May 4
letter that it would transfer the www.vw.net domain name to Volkswagen,
the lawsuit said.

     Virtual Works Chief Executive James Anderson pointed out VW
registered for www.vw.com in 1995
and left www.vw.net free for his company the following year. The
automaker then said nothing until
December 1998 when he received a letter threatening a lawsuit.

     Under the 1996 Trademark Dilution Act, a company can seek to stop
another party from using a
trademark even if that party is not in the same business. Companies also
need to show they are protecting
their trademarks or they can lose their rights to them.





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