Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection

This week you learned about the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protect Act or ACPA. The discussion this week will have two parts. 

Part 1: (Must be posted by Wednesday)

In this case, you are the defendant of a trademark, which you believe you have the legal rights to. You have brought suit against the plaintiff, who you feel is a cybersquatter, who registered a domain name that is similar to your trademark. You must conduct independent research of a real-world case and use this example to defend your argument and respond to the following questions:

• Describe the type of trademark you own and how it is protected.
• What defenses or arguments do you have to use against the cybersquatter? 

Part 2

Respond to three of your classmates’ posts. Your posts are due by Sunday. For this post, you will either:

• Conduct a constructive critique of another classmate’s initial post and identify opportunities to strengthen his or her initial argument against the said plaintiff. You should consider:
  • What additional defenses are available?
  • What other cases exist that you could refer to either strengthen the original argument or dispute it?
• Write a response to your classmate’s post as the plaintiff and describe your defense on why you should have legal rights to the domain name.

Be creative and use at least 2 outside sources including the originally cited case. Follow appropriate APA style guidelines to cite your sources.

Regarding your response to your classmates:
Please highlight a new facet to build on what your classmate stated, add to the conversation, or find an alternative viewpoint and support your response with citations. It’s important to have more than “I agree” or “good point,” when responding!

NOTE: You must make an initial post before you are able to view the posts of your peers. Please make the initial post by Day 3 at 11:59 pm CST and respond to a minimum of three classmates’ initial posts prior to the end of the week on Day 7 at 11:59 pm CST. To view the discussion board rubric, click the icon with three dots that appear in the upper right corner of this assignment box and select “Show Rubric.”

A reminder about conference discussion at the Master’s level:
Try to complete your initial post early during the conference week (no later than Day 3 of the week) and plan to continue dialogue with your classmates throughout the remainder of the week. Think of our online conversations as discussion in a traditional classroom. Remember, the intent of our conference discussion is to take the conversation to the Master’s level.

In addition, posting early has its benefits. You have the opportunity to state your original thoughts without worrying that you are saying the same things that a classmate has already stated.

Finally, please use academic citations from the library to support your statements. Don’t simply rely on Google!