UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

CABLE NEWS NETWORK, LP, LLLP, 

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

CNNEWS.COM,

Defendant-Appellant,

MAYA ONLINE BROADBAND NETWORK  No. 02-1112

(HK) COMPANY, LIMITED,

Appellant.

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION,

Amicus Supporting Appellant.

AT&T CORPORATION,

Amicus Supporting Appellee. 

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Alexandria.

T. S. Ellis, III, District Judge.

(CA-00-2022-A)

Argued: October 30, 2002

Decided: January 23, 2003

Before LUTTIG, MICHAEL, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.

Vacated in part, affirmed in part, and final order affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. 
COUNSEL

ARGUED: James Wilson Dabney, PENNIE & EDMONDS, L.L.P.,

New York, New York, for Appellants. David J. Stewart, ALSTON &

BIRD, L.L.P., Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Hailing

Zhang, Nanda K. Alapati, PENNIE & EDMONDS, L.L.P., New

York, New York, for Appellants. John D. Haynes, ALSTON &

BIRD, L.L.P., Atlanta, Georgia; Janis Orfe, THE LAW OFFICES OF

JANIS ORFE, P.C., Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellee. Cindy Cohn,

Legal Director, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION,

San Francisco, California; Eric C. Grimm, CYBERBRIEF, P.L.C.,

Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Amicus Curiae Foundation. Laura A.

Kaster, Frank L. Politano, Michele A. Farber, AT&T CORP., Basking

Ridge, New Jersey; Alan Charles Raul, Frank R. Volpe, Edward R.

McNicholas, Julie M. Zampa, SIDLEY, AUSTIN, BROWN &

WOOD, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae AT&T.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See

Local Rule 36(c). 

OPINION

PER CURIAM: 

Cable News Network LP, LLLP (CNN) brought this in rem action

against the domain name cnnews.com under the Anticybersquatting

Consumer Protection Act of 1999 (ACPA), alleging that the use of the

domain name by a Chinese news service provider both infringed on

and diluted the CNN trademark. CNN sought an order transferring

ownership of the domain name from Maya HK, a Chinese company,

to CNN. The district court granted CNN’s motion for summary judgment on the trademark infringement claim. The court then entered an

order transferring the domain name cnnews.com to CNN. We affirm.

I.

When a company wants the rights to a new domain name, it contacts a registrar. The registrar submits the domain name to a registry,

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which enters the assigned domain name into a database. Network

Solutions, Inc. (NSI), a Virginia corporation that was bought out after

the commencement of this action, operated both a registrar and a registry, with these functions being performed by separate units within

the corporate structure. The registry unit, now known as VeriSign

Global Registry Services (VeriSign GRS), is the sole registry for .com

domain names. Its right to this position stems in part from a contract

with the U.S. Department of Commerce. 

Maya HK, a Chinese company, is a subsidiary of Shanghai Maya,

another Chinese company. In November 1999 Heyu Wang, Maya

HK’s general manager, registered the domain name cnnews.com with

NSI; NSI served as both the registrar and registry in that transaction.

Wang remained the nominal owner of the domain name, which was

licensed to Shanghai Maya, and Maya HK earned royalties from

Shanghai Maya’s use of the name. Maya HK has registered six other

domain names used by Shanghai Maya, including cnmaya.com,

cnnav.com, cnsport.com, and cncities.com. 

Beginning in April 2000 CNN wrote to Wang, demanding that he

transfer the rights to the cnnews.com site to CNN. Wang refused and

appears to have transferred ownership of the domain name to Maya

HK in October or November 2000. Around the same time, Maya HK

had Eastcom, a Chinese company, register the domain name, severing

any link with NSI (or its successor) as a registrar. VeriSign GRS, as

the sole registry for ".com" domain names, remains the company’s

registry. 

The cnnews.com site primarily carries Chinese language news.

Some of these news stories refer to CNN stories. The site contains

some English language content and includes links to English language

sites. Shanghai Maya’s primary shareholder, Tom.com, has expressed

a desire to reach the worldwide Chinese-language community,

although Tom.com seems to regard expansion in mainland China as

a more realistic short-term goal. Moreover, Maya HK and Shanghai

Maya claim that they have no connections to the United States except

their use of NSI’s (now VeriSign GRS’s) registry. Indeed, Shanghai

Maya has said that it does not accept payment from those outside the

mainland. 

CABLE NEWS NETWORK v. CNNEWS.COM 3
In December 2000 CNN brought an in rem action against the

domain name cnnews.com in the United States District Court for the

Eastern District of Virginia to gain the rights to the domain name.

Jurisdiction was asserted under the in rem provisions of the ACPA,

which is part of the Lanham Act. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)(2)(a). At the

behest of counsel for CNN and VeriSign GRS, Eastcom deposited a

registrar certificate with the district court, which gave the court control over the registration of cnnews.com. 

Maya HK filed a motion to dismiss in April 2001, contesting the

validity of the court’s in rem jurisdiction. The district court denied the

motion. The court explained first that a plaintiff asserting in rem jurisdiction did not have to demonstrate that the defendant had minimum

contacts with the forum. The court held that the statute explicitly

allows in rem suits to be brought where the registry for the domain

name is located. Because the registry for cnnews.com, VeriSign GRS,

is in the Eastern District of Virginia, the court had jurisdiction. Second, the court found that CNN did not need to plead and prove bad

faith to satisfy the jurisdictional requirements. Third, it denied Maya

HK’s claim that CNN had failed to join an indispensable party.

Finally, the district court found that CNN had perfected service. 

Following the denial of this initial motion to dismiss, the parties

conducted discovery and both ultimately submitted motions for summary judgment. In its summary judgment order, the district court first

considered whether CNN had demonstrated the required elements for

a trademark infringement claim. The court required CNN to show (1)

that it possessed a mark; (2) that Maya HK used the mark; (3) that

Maya HK’s use of the mark was "in commerce," which the Lanham

Act defines as a use that is connected to or has an effect on U.S. commerce; (4) that Maya HK’s use of the mark was connected with the

sale, distribution, or advertising of goods or services; and (5) that

Maya HK’s use of the mark was likely to confuse consumers. After

determining that only elements (3) and (5) were contested, the court

concluded that CNN had satisfactorily demonstrated that Maya HK’s

use of cnnews.com affected U.S. commerce and was likely to cause

consumer confusion. Moreover, the court rejected Maya HK’s request

that it apply the Supreme Court’s analysis in Steele v. Bulova Watch

Co., 344 U.S. 280, 285-89 (1952), to determine whether extraterritorial application of the Lanham Act was appropriate. The court deter4 CABLE NEWS NETWORK v. CNNEWS.COM
mined instead that because the res was located within the United

States, the Act’s application was domestic, not extraterritorial. The

court then decided that CNN was required to establish that Maya HK

had acted with bad faith to prevail on a trademark infringement claim.

Concluding that Maya HK had acted with bad faith, the court granted

summary judgment to CNN on its trademark infringement claim. The

court, however, rejected CNN’s trademark dilution claim because

CNN did not demonstrate actual harm to the mark. Based on these

determinations the district court ordered that the domain name

cnnews.com be transferred to CNN. 

II.

Maya HK appeals, arguing primarily that the district court lacked

jurisdiction because Maya HK did not have sufficient minimum contacts with the forum. Maya HK also appeals (1) the district court’s

determination that Maya HK acted in bad faith, (2) the court’s refusal

to apply the Steele factors to determine whether it should apply the

Lanham Act extraterritorially, (3) the court’s grant of summary judgment to CNN on its trademark infringement claim, and (4) the court’s

order transferring ownership of the domain name cnnews.com to

CNN. 

The district court properly exercised in rem jurisdiction over the

domain name cnnews.com. See Harrods Ltd. v. Sixty Internet Domain

Names, 302 F.3d 214, 225 (4th Cir. 2002). The court decided the merits, including the issue of Maya HK’s bad faith, prior to our holding

that a plaintiff may prevail in an in rem trademark infringement and

dilution action without alleging and proving bad faith. Harrods Ltd.,

302 F.3d at 232. The portions of the district court’s summary judgment opinion dealing with the bad faith issue are therefore vacated.

In light of Harrods Ltd. there is no need for us to address the issue

of whether Maya HK acted in bad faith. This, however, does not alter

the outcome because the district court determined that CNN had

established all of the essential elements of a trademark infringement

claim. As to the issue of trademark infringement and all remaining

issues raised on appeal, we affirm on the reasoning of the district

court. Cable News Network L.P., L.L.L.P. v. cnnews.com, 177 F.

Supp. 2d 506 (E.D. Va. 2001) (opinion granting CNN’s motion for

CABLE NEWS NETWORK v. CNNEWS.COM 5
summary judgment). The district court’s final order transferring the

domain name cnnews.com to CNN is also affirmed.

VACATED IN PART AND AFFIRMED

IN PART; FINAL ORDER AFFIRMED

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