Date: 03-22-2000

Case Style: Joseph C. Shields, individually and t/a The Joe Cartoon Co. v. Zuccarini

Case Number: 00-cv-494

Judge: Stewart Dalzell

Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Plaintiff's Attorney: Michael P. Coughlin and William J. Levant of Kaplin, Stewart, Meloff, Reiter & Stein, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

Defendant's Attorney: Howard M. Neu, Pembroke Pines, Florida

Description: Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(d)

Plaintiff Joseph Shields, a graphic artist from Alto, Michigan, creates, exhibits, and markets cartoons under the name "Joe Cartoon" and "The Joe Cartoon Co." His creations incclude the popular "Frog Blender", "Micro-Gerbil", and "Live and Let Dive" animations. On June 12, 1997, Shields registered www.joecartoon.com as his World Wide Web site and has operated it ever since. In November of 1999, Zuccarini, an Andalusia, Pennsylvania "wholesaler" of Internet domain names, registed five World Wide Web variations on Shield's site: joescarton.com, joecarton.com, joescartons.com, and cartonjoe.com. Zuccarini's site featured advertisements for other sites and credit card companies. Visitors were trapped or "mousetrapped" in the sites, unable to exit without clicking on a succession of ads. Zuccarini received between ten and twenty-five cents for the advertisers for every click. After Shields filed this lawsuit, Zuccarini changed the five sites to "political protest" pages.

Outcome: Preliminary injunction in plaintiff's favor.

Plaintiff's Experts: None

Defendant's Experts: None

Comments: For more information about this case, see: 89 F.Supp.2d 634 (E.D.Pa. 2000).

E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to verdicts@morelaw.com.

Reported by Kent Morlan

Bill Levant provided the following about the case:

After the Preliminary Injunction was entered, the Court granted Summary Judgment in favor of the Plaintiff, by Order dated June 5, 2000, entered a permanent injunction against the Defendant, and scheduled a hearing for assessment of damages on July 17, 2000. See 2000 WL 1056400 (not reported in F. Supp.)

On July 18, 2000, the Court awarded the Plaintiff $50,000.00 in statutory damages, and $39,109.46 in attorneys' fees and costs. See 2000 WL 1053884 (not reported in F. Supp).

The Defendant appealed to the Third Circuit, on July 27, 2000, at number 2000-02236, and posted a *cash* appeal bond of $94,313.98 to stay execution pending appeal.

The case is scheduled for mediation next week, and if it doesn't settle, briefing should begin early next year.

By the way, this was the first ACPA case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and one of the very first reported ACPA cases anywhere in the country.

We also represented Tandy Corporation, The Sports Authority Michigan, Inc. and Calvin Klein, Inc. in separate cases against Mr. Zuccarini. All of those matters were settled.