IOC, USOC Seek to Shut Down Olympic Sites

IOC, USOC Sue for Enjoin 'Olympic' Domain Names

Seek to shut down 1,800 sites; allege that traffic is diverted

Alexandria, Virginia, July 21, 2000 -- With less than two months before the start of the 2000 Summer Olympics, the Olympic sponsored Web sites have yet to generate the amount of traffic and revenue that officials had hoped for. In response to the disappointing volume. One reason may be the attempts by cybersquatters to register Internet domain names using the term "Olympics."

In an attempt to direct more traffic to the official Olympic Web sites, the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee filed a joint lawsuit in U.S. District Court against more than 1,800 registered Internet domain names using the words "Olympic" or "Olympiad." The suit is focused on correcting the domain names of sites that falsely appear to be officially associated with the 2000, 2002, 2004 or 2006 Olympic games. The case involves more addresses than any previous single lawsuit.

According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit, filed on June 20, is not intended to collect damages, rather the committees have asked the violators to either turn over their registered domain names or delete them from circulation. According to the groups' attorney, "several hundred" of the Web sites have since agreed to relinquish their control of the misleading domain names.

Jeremy Eichel