Given its Amphitheatre naming-rights cheesiness, 1-800-Ask-Gary is easy to, well, dislike. But that’s no reason not to see how Gary Kompothecras, the Sarasota chiropractor who’s behind the eponymous1-800 trademark, has been shafted in a domain controversy that’s devolved into another one of those common sense-challenged, free speech cases.
Recently an arbitrator decided that a Pinellas Park personal injury lawyer, David Neville, can keep his AskGarySucks.com website over the protests of Kompothecras, who accused Neville of registering the domain name in bad faith. Neville said he had registered it four years ago as a joke, but also considered it might conceivably be sold to Kompothecras.
Enough to make one wonder about the “bad faith” threshold. And certainly enough to prompt Kompothecras to consider going to court.
Needless to say, it’s still preferred that someone else had been asked to buy the Amphitheatre naming rights, but even hucksters can be wronged. Just (1-800) ask Kompothecras.