Tourism authority settles suit over name
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Hawai'i Tourism Authority settled a lawsuit against a Maui man it had accused of "cybersquatting" on a Web address, acknowledging it probably was not a good idea to have pursued the $45,000 legal case.
Under terms of the settlement quietly reached late last month, each side will pay its own legal expenses and John Hendrickson, who registered the domain address www.hawaiiconventioncenter.com in 1997, will retain ownership of the Web address.
The authority sued Hendrickson and his company, Pacific Motion Advisors Inc., in January, claiming more than $300,000 in damages and asking a state circuit court to compel him to forfeit ownership of the domain name.
State lawyers skipped the cheaper alternative of arbitration in favor of the lawsuit, in part because of concerns their case wasn't strong enough to guarantee a victory.
Authority Executive Director Rex Johnson said HTA's board sought the domain name out of concern that it could be misused in the future.
"It's easy to Monday-morning quarterback," he said, adding that the state did not end up with the domain name and still must pay $45,000 in legal fees.
"So in hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to pursue this case," he said.
Money spent on the lawsuit otherwise would have been spent on the authority's tourism marketing responsibilities, Johnson said.
"If it's $10 used on this, then it's $10 that doesn't get used somewhere else," he said. "Yes, it does have an effect, but I couldn't quantify it."
The authority controls a $56 million budget financed through the hotel room tax.
Attorneys for the state had admitted that tourism officials were lax in not registering the disputed domain name themselves.
However, the state's lawyers contended the Hawai'i Convention Center, which the Hawai'i Tourism Authority operates, should still be able to claim the domain name under trademark laws.
The Hawai'i Convention Center's current Internet address is www.hawaiiconvention.com.
Hendrickson said he couldn't comment on the matter yesterday. But he previously maintained that he registered the name to promote his destination management service and not to profit by reselling the name to the Hawai'i Convention Center, as the state agency asserted.
The state based its cybersquatting allegations on Hendrickson's rejection of a $10,000 purchase offer and his statement that he would sell the domain name for $6 million. Hendrickson later said the $6 million offer was not serious but rather meant as a message that he did not intend to sell the domain.
Yesterday, the www.hawaiiconventioncenter.com Web site contained a map of the Hawaiian islands along with the message, "Coming Soon!"
Johnson said the settlement concludes the matter for now.
"We're not about to get into this again unless something really strange happens with that domain name that gives us a great deal of grief," he said.
Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.
