The Rev. Jerry Falwell cannot use federal trademark law to shut down a Web site at www.fallwell.com that is critical of his views about homosexuality, a federal appeals court has ruled.
No one who visits fallwell.com � a deliberate misspelling of Falwell's name � would be confused into thinking that he supported or endorsed the site's content, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said, reversing a lower court's order that plaintiff Christopher Lamparello turn the domain name over to Falwell.
As the panel's opinion explains, Lamparello registered fallwell.com in February 1999 after hearing an interview in which Falwell expressed opinions about gay people and homosexuality that Lamparello found offensive. On the main page, Lamparello's site includes a disclaimer stating that it is not affiliated with Falwell or Jerry Falwell Ministries, and it includes a link to Falwell's official Web site at falwell.com.
After Falwell demanded that Lamparello stop using the fallwell.com domain, Lamparello filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking a court ruling that he was not infringing on any of Falwell's trademarks.
Details here from Andrews Publications via Findlaw.com.