Kodak Wins Russian CyberSquatting Case

After more than a year and 20 lawsuits, U.S. camera giant Eastman Kodak finally won a case in a Moscow court against the man who operates the Internet site kodak.ru. In a decision Kodak called historically important for the Russian Internet, the Moscow arbitration court ruled Wednesday that businessman Alexander Gundul has no right to use the Kodak domain to promote his retail electronics business. "The ruling is a revolutionary thing," said Yury Vatskovsky, Kodak s lawyer. "Such cases in Russia usually end in defeat for the [plaintiff]." Gundul s site displays only Kodak cameras and has two disclaimers posted on the bottom that say, "This site is not the site of the Eastman Kodak Company" and "The company Spectrum Service has the right of use to this site." By clicking on any of the cameras posted on the site, the Web user is taken to another page that gives information about the product and displays a "where to buy" button, which links to photocd.ru the home page of an electronics store called Digital Photo Service that sells everything from videos to computers. The court ruled that the use of the Kodak domain name to lure customers to Digital Photo Service was an infringement on Kodak and ordered Gundul to stop using the site and pay the U.S. firm 2,600 rubles (US $93) in compensation.