Harvard as a model in trademark and domain name protection.

I. INTRODUCTION

Collegiate licensing has developed into a booming industry (1) since the advent of such programs in the early- to mid-1980s. (2) Colleges and universities learned that their names, logos, and designs, which are the "basic protectable items of commercial value that fans identify with," (3) are some of their greatest assets. (4) Efforts to establish and protect these "marketable property rights in licensed merchandise" (5) known as trademarks expanded with the explosion of retail sales. (6)

As is true with the collegiate licensing industry, the Internet has experienced tremendous financial growth in recent years. (7) Consequently, domain names, which were once viewed solely as identifiers on the Internet, (8) underwent a transformation in economic importance (9) similar to that of university trademarks. Colleges and universities, like other entities, realized that domain names possess many of the qualities of conventional trademarks, and that they can be used to deceive consumers. (10)

Since that time, institutions of higher education have taken steps to protect their names and logos. First, many have registered, and are continuing to register, "domain names that are identical to, or confusingly similar to, their trademarks to minimize instances of trademark infringement." (11) They also have resorted to litigation, bringing claims for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unfair competition under the federal Lanham Act, numerous state statutes, and common law. (12) In addition, some have sued under the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, which was enacted as part of the Intellectual Property and Communications Omnibus Reform Act of 1999. (13) Finally, many colleges and universities are establishing and expanding their monitoring programs. (14)

This Note will examine Harvard University's ("Harvard," "the University," "the school") numerous methods to safeguard its trademarks, including domain names, on the Internet. Harvard is used as a paradigm because, besides serving as a leader in academia and research, it is on the forefront of trademark protection on the Internet. It recently brought several lawsuits to safeguard its marks, and it also reworked its policies to strengthen its protective measures. Higher education administrators of other educational institutions, intellectual property attorneys, and legal scholars have much to gain from studying Harvard's approaches.