Monday, September 12, 2005

Hey! Hey! Hey! Cybersquatting's not okay!

The United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today struck a blow in the name of trademark justice, awarding entertainer Bill Cosby the rights to the Internet domain name fatalbert.org. Cybersquatter Sterling Davenport of Loretto, Tennessee, who had registered the domain, was found by a WIPO arbitrator to have "no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name." Davenport apparently used the fatalbert.org ID to divert traffic to a Web site selling adult paraphernalia.



Cosby introduced Fat Albert in his standup comedy routines in the early 1960s. The character later spawned a successful Saturday morning cartoon series and, more recently, a live-action feature film starring Kenan Thompson as the rotund one.

My favorite Fat Albert character was always Weird Harold. Not because the guy was all that interesting, but just because I like the sound of the name Weird Harold. The only Harold I ever knew was a kid in high school named Harold Rosenthal, who — now that I think about it — actually was a little weird. He used to call me "Reggie," allegedly because he thought I resembled baseball slugger Reggie Jackson. I don't, really, but if it pleased Harold to think so, it was okay with me.

I did, however, enjoy Reggie candy bars. Pitcher Ken Holtzman, a teammate of Jackson's with both the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees, once observed that you didn't even have to eat a Reggie Bar to know whether it was tasty — when you unwrapped it, the Reggie Bar would tell you how good it was.



Where was I going with this post?

I forget.

(This article is cross-posted to my film/television blog at DVD Verdict.)

1 insisted on sticking two cents in:

Blogger Joel offered these pearls of wisdom...

Sounds like the Madonna.com case.

3:08 PM  

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