NCAA wins partial victory in fight for 32 Internet addresses

Thursday, December 7th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GENEVA (AP) _ The NCAA was awarded 20 Internet domain names Thursday in a U.N.-arbitrated dispute, but failed to win control of 12 addresses that appeared to offer gambling on college sports.

The NCAA claimed that the addresses, registered by Rosemary Giancola of San Jose, Costa Rica, created a risk of confusion with its own trademark and with its NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football names.

Arbitrator Roderick Thompson ordered 20 addresses _ including ncaamensbasketball.com, ncaamenstournament.com, ncaacollegefootball.com and ncaafootballschedule.com _ transferred to the NCAA.

But he threw out the association's complaint about 12 other names that included terms related to gambling _ among them ncaabasketballodds.com, ncaafootballbetting.com and ncaatournamentpredictions.com

The NCAA and several high profile college coaches maintain that the U.S. Congress should outlaw all college sports betting to keep gamblers from influencing young athletes to throw games.

``Given the NCAA's strong opposition to gambling, it is less likely that these names could lead to any confusion,'' Thompson's ruling said.

``Instead, these names appear to be a descriptive use of the NCAA mark to indicate sites that provide access to information on gambling on NCAA games.''

He added the NCAA ``does not suggest that the alleged use is illegal'' and concluded this was a legitimate use of the addresses.

Giancola argued that all the disputed domain names led to general sports interest sites.

She said ``there is no way that a consumer would mistake the content of those sites as having any direct connection with the NCAA,'' according to the ruling.

Anyone can register a domain name for a few dollars, which has led so-called ``cybersquatters'' to file for famous names to make a fast buck from those who want the names. Some names are worth millions of dollars.

The U.N. World Intellectual Property Organization's arbitration system, which started last year, allows those who think they have the real right to a domain to get it back without having to fight a costly legal battle.