Kodak gets domain names

Photo giant Eastman Kodak has prevailed in a domain name dispute against a California resident who took up eight domain names, including kodaktheatre.com, thekodaktheatre.com and kodaktheatre.net, according to The National Arbitration Forum. The NAF said when Kodak announced a business venture using the name Kodak Theatre in connection with theatre and entertainment services, Dionne Lamb took the names and offered to sell them to Kodak for $100,000 a piece. Kodak brought the dispute to the NAF, and an NAF arbitrator ordered the domain names transferred to Kodak. Former District Judge Carolyn Marks Johnson of Houston, Texas, found that the domain names were similar to the company's federally registered trademark and were registered in bad faith because they were offered for sale "in excess of the reasonable cost of registration and development." The dispute was one of hundreds heard each year by the NAF through its relationship with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity in charge of administrating domain names. The NAF consists of an international network of former judges, senior attorneys and law professors.