In Coca-Cola Co. v. Purdy, the 8th Circuit heard a consolidated appeal from a man who may be the craftiest cybersquatter to ever make it into a U.S. Appeals Court decision. Under the facts, William Purdy, a staunch anti-abortionist, registered multiple domain names which contained plaintiffs' registered trademarks, such as "drinkCoke.org," "my-WashingtonPost," and "myPepsi.org". Here, defendant raised First Amendment arguments in his appeal of the injunctive relief granted to corporate plaintiffs.

Reading the opinion, it seems that Purdy was not motivated by money, as most classic cybersquatters are. Instead, his domain name antics were spurred on by strong anti-abortion beliefs.

Unfortunately for Purdy, the 8th Circuit did not find his First Amendment arguments compelling. They likened his guerrilla tactics to "the information superhighway equivalent of posting a large sign bearing a McDonald's logo before a freeway exit for the purpose of diverting unwitting travelers to the site of an antiabortion rally."

Though Purdy's arguments failed, you have to give him credit for his underdog efforts. His moral/political convictions have led him to squaring off against some of the most powerful corporate entities in the U.S.

From the plaintiffs' point of view, Purdy's unauthorized use of corporate IP is just as damaging as a company hate site, such as "cokesucks.com." Interestingly, Coke was able to come up with concrete evidence of actual confusion caused by Purdy's misleading domain:

"Coca- Cola received an email from the visitor to that site on July 7, 2002. He reported that he had been "checking out your web pages and I came by [drinkcoke.org]." He complained that the website had Coca-Cola's logo "all over it" and the content [pictures of aborted fetuses] had shocked him. "I am a Coke drinker myself, a fan i may say . . . I always have some in the fridge and I was drinking [one] right now! but I got to admit, I cant finish it after i seen this page".

Although this email sounds a bit contrived (like it could've been sent by a friend of a Coke employee), as a reader of user feedback at a large web site, I can attest to the unusual comments people often make in their email.