STAND. COM. REP. NO.773

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 1221

H.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1221, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CYBERSQUATTING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to prohibit and provide civil and injunctive remedies for "cybersquatting" – the bad faith registration, sale, or use of an internet domain name that is identical or confusingly similar to the personal name of another living person or deceased personality. In addition, this bill:

(1) Provides conditions the Court may consider in determining bad faith intent;

(2) Clarifies that the prohibition does not apply if the name registered as a domain name is connected to a work of authorship, including fiction or nonfiction entertainment and dramatic, literary, audiovisual, or musical works; and

(3) Establishes a cause of action for any person or the deceased person's legal representative if the Attorney General fails to respond within thirty days of the person's request, or declines to prosecute.

The Lieutenant Governor, speaking as a concerned citizen, testified in support of the bill. Verizon Hawaii supported the intent of the bill.

The practice of cyber piracy harms consumers, electronic commerce, and the goodwill equity of valuable names. However, there are only a few laws that regulate the Internet to prohibit cyber piracy. In 1999, Congress enacted the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), Public Law No. 106-113, 113 Stat. 1501, to create a new civil action in favor of a trademark owner, including a personal name that is protected as a mark, against a person who has a bad faith intent to profit from the mark. Also, the California Legislature recently enacted the Cyber Piracy Law to further expand the protections on trademarks provided by ACPA. This bill is based on the California law.

Technical, nonsubstantive amendments were made for purposes of clarity, style, and conformity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1221, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1221, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair