Thanks to Owen Frager for posting the link to the video on YouTube. To summarize, Henry Mishkoff, a Dallas web developer, created a website full of information about the Taubman Company’s mall, The Shops at Willow Bend. Because he used the name of the mall in his domain name, Taubman filed suit and won an injunction against Mishkoff. The court ruled that Mishkoff was infringing on Taubman’s trademark and ordered the website to be taken down.

To show his displeasure with Taubman, Mishkoff registered and developed TaubmanSucks.com. Again, Taubman filed suit against Mishkoff in a Texas court, and this time, Mishkoff won. In the ruling, the justices cited Miskoff’s right to freedom of speech and ruled,

“Taubman concedes that Mishkoff is ‘free to shout “Taubman Sucks!” from the rooftops’… Essentially, this is what he has done in his domain name. The rooftops of our past have evolved into the internet domain names of our present.”

“This is the first time an appellate court has addressed the trademark and free speech rights for an Internet fan site not meant to mislead and gripe site, and it was particularly important that the court get things right. This decision will set an important precedent protecting the rights of citizens to criticize and to praise. It is quite a victory,” said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group who represented Mishkoff.” – Source: Public Citizen

Domain names are powerful communication tools, and it is good to see a court ruling accordingly.