One of the first noteworthy cybersquatting cases was Panavision International, L.P. v. Dennis Toeppen, a 1998 case where the Ninth Circuit upheld the rights of the trademark owner against the entrepreneurial cybersquatter, Dennis Toeppen, who had registered over 100 domain names of various well-known trademarks. It was obvious that the picture was only there for the purpose of trying to disguise Toeppen's intent to sell the name back to plaintiff. Panavision subsequently filed suit against Toeppen. Similar results had been reached in Panasonic v. Toeppen in 1996 and Intermatic v. Toeppen in 1996.
Celebrities have rights in their names too.
In addition to cybersquatting, the complaint also includes causes of action for trademark dilution, trademark infringement, statutory misappropriation of name and right of publicity, unfair competition, and copyright infringement. The court ordered defendant to stop operating the web sites and transfer the names back to the plaintiff musicians. Often, cybersquatters exploit famous names of celebrities and trademarks to attract people to their unrelated web sites, some of which are X-rated and depend on traffic for revenue. Defendants operated a pornographic site and hoped to capitalize on typographical errors made by people attempting to reach plaintiffs' site. The court said that plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their federal dilution claim since plaintiffs mark was famous and was being tarnished by its association with defendants' site.