August 21, 2006

A subdomain lawsuit that had the capability to define how far trademark infringements can go when subdomains are concerned has been settled out of court.

The suit was filed by a California non-profit organization against Google. This was in direct response to a blogger who set up a Web site critical of the group at http://jewsforjesus.blogspot.com.

According to Santa Clara University law professor and attorney Eric Goldman, this case could have set some precedent about third-level subdomains (like the "blog" part of http://blog.anycompany.com).

While trademark infringement laws have been shown to apply to a regular domain name, it has not yet been applied to third-level ones.

Additionally, "it isn't clear that it would apply", Goldman said.

It would help define Google's responsibility in what subdomains it allows to be registered.

The lawsuit was settled by Jews for Jesus and the blogger, who transferred the site over to them.

Since the issues were never decided by any judge, the Internet community will have to wait for the next lawsuit to find the answers to those questions.

Source: Click Z