Altria Gets a Hit with Marijuana Domain Name Dispute

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Tobacco company scores a hit with marijuana domains.

Altria MarijuanaIn December I wrote about how Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, had filed a complaint to get the domain names AltriaCannabis.com and AltriaMarijuana.com. The company won the case at World Intellectual Property Forum against Daniel Cheng of Washington, D.C., and the domain names should be transferred to Altria’s possession shortly.

As I noted in the earlier article, the domain names each had web sites speaking out against the legalization of marijuana. But it turns out those sites weren’t posted until after Altria initially contacted the owner asking him to refrain from using the Altria marks. That might explain the hasty nature of the web sites, which each had links to both pro and anti marijuana legalization sites.

Now for the big question: what will Altria do with these domain names now that it owns them?

7 Comments » - Posted in Policy & Law by


Altria Gearing Up to Sell Marijuana?

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Company files case against owner of marijuana domain names.

Altria MarijuanaAltria Group, the parent company of tobacco company Philip Morris USA, has filed an arbitration proceeding to get the domain names AltriaMarijuana.com and AltriaCannabis.com.

Is the company getting ready for the day pot becomes legal? Perhaps, but the company is probably more concerned about the content on the web sites. Both sites invite visitors to “Fight Against the Legalization of Marijuana” and ridicule tobacco companies as beneficiaries of legalization of the drug. After explaining a number of bills that have been passed or introduced to legalize marijuana, the sites proclaim:

Greater than the sum of all these fears is the premonition that, when made legal, “big business,” especially those “big businesses” that profit from poisoning our society and the destroying our youth with tobacco and alcohol, will engage in and ultimately control this “multi-billion dollar” industry, furthering the decline and destruction of America at a unfathomable rate. Thus it is the mission of this website to fight the legalization and usage of marijuana/cannabis and all other intoxicating, addicting, and illicit substances.

The domain names are registered to a person in Washington, D.C., but the contact email address is for an IT/hosting company. The web sites do not identify who is behind them.

16 Comments » - Posted in Policy & Law by


TOP