Florida Trademark Dispute Over MyFlorida.com
According to an article in the Miami Herald, the state of Florida is trying to protect its trademark in court from a domain name publisher that bought MyFlorida.mobi.
Thomas Rask, Florida-based Logical Sites chief executive, bought the name for two years at $70. Shortly after that, a Florida Department of Management Services contacted Rask requesting that he hand the website over, since the state owns the MyFlorida.com trademark.
The World Intellectual Property Organization ruled last month that Rask must give up the site. However, Rask has hired a Florida trademark attorney to file a complaint with a district court in Tampa. His argument is that the words "my" and "Florida" are too generic to enforce a trademark. He also says that since businesses with trademarks have to register their names before the public, the state should have done so then.
Rask plans to turn MyFlorida.mobi into a destination for mobile users to get tourism information on the go. 30% of Logical Sites’ income is derived from advertisements on Florida tourism sites, including beachdirectory.com and keysdirectory.com.