City food bank bitten by domain name game

Swiss firm offers to sell back web address for $200 US

Mike Sadava
The Edmonton Journal

December 8, 2004

EDMONTON - Type edmontonfoodbank.org into your Internet search engine and an advertisement will appear for a company called Vimax, which sells so-called penis enlargement pills.

The company, of course, has nothing to do with the food bank. "I hope people haven't been left with the impression that the Edmonton Food Bank would be in this business," said Matt Steringa, fund development co-ordinator for the organization.

Steringa said the Internet address got into the hands of an organization called PromoTechnology, a subsidiary of the Swiss-based Bealo Group, after the food bank inadvertently failed to renew registration of the name. Renewal notice was apparently sent to an e-mail address to which no one at the food bank had access to or knew about, and the domain name was up for grabs after registration expired in the spring.

PromoTechnology registered the name and used it for the penis enlargement ad. The home page says the domain name is for sale.

An e-mail received by The Journal from V. Gaidlay, executive director of the Bealo Group, said the name is being offered for sale at $300 US.

Told the food bank is a charity that feeds Edmonton's neediest people, Gaidlay offered to lower the price.

"We are ready to sell this domain name for $200 US. I'm sorry, we can not sell this domain more cheaply."

It usually costs about $20 per year to register a domain name.

"We're not going to bend over backwards and spend our donors' money trying to get this site back from these people,"

Steringa said.

Marjorie Bencz, the food bank's executive director, said asking for money is "a little like blackmail."

She said the food bank has registered four different domain names to ensure this doesn't happen again. They include edmontonfoodbank.com, edmontonsfoodbank.com, edmontonfoodbank.ca and edmontonsfoodbank.ca.

Steringa blamed a combination of naivete and lack of Internet savvy for losing the domain name, though he feels the company that registered the name should have contacted them by phone when e-mails went unanswered.

Domain names are worth money. Dozens of celebrities, including Madonna and the Canadian Idol finalists, have had website addresses in their names snapped up.

PromoTechnology owns a number of domain names, some of which are for sale on the Internet. The company was forced last year by a U.S. court to give up the domain name for a Radisson Hotel in Memphis, Tenn.

"Using a domain name that is similar to another's registered mark in order to garner Internet traffic for profit is not a bona fide offering of goods or services ... nor a legitimate noncommercial or fair use,"

said the written decision of an arbitrator.

Aspden said the food bank's experience should serve as a warning about how important it is to keep tabs on the website address registration.

It is prudent for a company to use a generic e-mail address rather than an individual employee's, in case the employee leaves before registration.

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REGISTRATION

You can register a domain name with a number of local Internet companies. There is a central registry that keeps track of all website addresses and checks whether the one you request is available.

Ran with fact box "Registration", which has been appended to this story.