FORT MYERS, Fla. - A local man's practical joke could end up in a domain debate. Eric Engelman of Lehigh Acres registered the domain name JetBluePark.Com last year, after the county signed an agreement giving the airline naming rights to the Red Sox training facility. The website takes you the home page for the New York Yankees.
"This comes up all the time," said Fort Myers Attorney Bill Noonan, who specializes in intellectual property law.
"Both sides would have an interest in not litigating this, I can assure you of that."
in 1999, Congress passed the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which is designed to give trademark owners stronger rights to domain names. Part of the act says a person shall be liable in a civil action if that person "has a bad faith intent to profit."
Because Engelman isn't making any money off of his site, Noonan says any litigation is unlikely.
"It was one of those things, for $8, I was willing to have a little bit of fun with it and I think I'm getting my money worth," said Engelman, who is a Cubs fan, but wanted to have a little fun with the new Red Sox Spring Training Facility.
"If he's not profiting from the site, that takes away a lot of the legal arguments," said Noonan.
Red Sox executives say they're looking into the domain change.
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