Harding v. Green [1]

Nevada attorney Samuel A. Harding filed a defamation and cybersquatting lawsuit against Joan L. Green after Green allegedly created a website critical of Harding at www.attorneysamharding.com. Harding alleged that Green's site "falsely states that Plaintiff committed illegal and criminal acts in the representation of clients." Harding's Complaint ¶ 11 [2]. Harding also alleged that Green was using his professional name and service mark in her domain name with a bad-faith intent to profit and in a manner likely to confuse Internet users.

The complaint claims Harding tried to the resolve the dispute by asking Green to transfer the domain to him. Green allegedly responded by putting the domain up for sale on auction site Afternic.com. The complaint seems to rely on Green's attempted sale of the domain to argue that Green had a bad-faith commercial motivation for launching the site. See Harding's Complaint ¶¶ 13-14, 17-18 [2].

In the suit, Harding filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would (1) prevent Green from using Harding's name and service mark (2) order Green and registrar Register.com to transfer the attorneysamharding.com domain to Harding. The court granted the motion, but it ordered only that Register.com "lock" the domain so that Green could not sell it.

Harding later dropped his motion for preliminary injunction on the ground that he had "obtain[ed] some of the relief sought by his Motion for Preliminary Injunction." See Harding's Motion to Vacate Hearing on Motion for Preliminary Injunction at pg. 1 [3].  A website favorable to Harding soon appeared at the attorneysamharding.com domain.

On February 13, 2009, Green, acting pro se, filed her answer to the complaint. Harding filed a motion to strike Green's answer on the ground that it failed to comply with various rules of civil procedure.

Update:

04/27/2009 - Greeen filed her Counterclaim and Complaint for Damages.

08/26/09 - The parties appeared before federal magistrate judge Hon. Lawrence Leavitt for oral argument, and Green agreed to dismiss her counterclaims against Harding.

10/14/2009 - After the parties settled, the court dismissed the case pursuant to a Stipulation and Order for Dismissal, With Prejudice, of All Claims and Counterclaims, and for a Permanent Injunction [4]. In the order, the parties stipulated that the court would enter a permanent injunction against Green prohibiting her from "(1) using Harding's name or confusingly similar variations thereof, alone or in combination with any other letter, word, letter string, phrase or design, for any purpose (including, but not limited to, on web sites and in domain names); and (2) registering owning, leasing, selling, or trafficking in any domain name containing Harding's name or service mark, or confusingly similar variations thereof, alone or in combination with any other letters, words, phrases or designs."