Peter Kieser

On July 17th, 2006 the Terry Fox Foundation demanded that I surrender my ownership of the terryfox.net domain to their foundation. I registered the domain name on October 10th, 2004 because the school I attended for my high school years was called Terry Fox Secondary School, I used the domain for the purpose of hosting school photos and projects related to my high school.

The domain was registered 7 years after the original terryfox.org domain (used by the foundation), and 2 years after my initial registration of the domain they contacted me (the domain was not even active nor serving content). If they wanted to defend their trademark they should have registered the domain sooner, and failing that contacted me sooner after I had registered the domain name.

Here is the email they sent me, via Goodmans Barristers & Solicitors:

Our File No.: 06-0720
Dear Mr. Kieser:
Re: TERRYFOX.NET Domain Name

We represent The Terry Fox Foundation (“the Foundation”) in relation to intellectual property matters in Canada. It has come to our attention that you have without our client’s authority registered the domain name TERRYFOX.NET (the “Domain Name”).

The Foundation’s mission is to maintain the principles of Terry Fox while raising money for cancer research through the annual Terry Fox Run held in Canada and more than fifty other countries around the world, memoriam donations and planned gifts. The first annual Terry Fox Run in 1981 was organized in conjunction with the Canadian Cancer Society. Since its establishment in 1988, the Foundation has raised money for cancer research. The Foundation strives to maintain the heroic efforts and integrity that Terry Fox embodied. The Foundation relies heavily on the generosity of the private sector to support its activities.

The Foundation is the owner of all indicia relating to Terry Fox, including his name and likeness. In addition, the Foundation has registered various domain names including the name TERRY FOX, such as the domain name TERRYFOXRUN.ORG, which is the official web site for the Foundation.

The Domain Name which you have adopted is identical to our client’s well-known trade-mark and name TERRY FOX. Your activities constitute violations of our client’s trade-mark rights in the name and mark TERRY FOX, and associated indicia, including misappropriation of personality and passing off. In addition, the Foundation has strong grounds to succeed in an administrative proceeding against you under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

We are sure that you can appreciate that this matter is one of considerable importance to the Foundation. We hope that this matter can be resolved amicably and promptly. In particular, we ask that that the Domain Name be immediately transferred or assigned to the Foundation and that you discontinue all use whatsoever of the Domain Name, including as a domain name, meta tag or as part of any code.

We ask that you provide us with your response to the foregoing within ten days from the date of this communication, failing which our client will have no alternative but to assume that you are unwilling to resolve this matter amicably. Our client will then take whatever steps and actions it considers appropriate to protect its rights without further notice to you.

We look forward to a reply from you or your legal representative.

Yours very truly,
Amalia Trister

Amalia M. Trister
Barristers & Solicitors
250 Yonge Street, Suite 2400
Toronto, Ontario M5B 2M6
atrister@goodmans.ca
t 416.597.4296
f 416.979.1234

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I used to support the Terry Fox Foundation because I thought they provided useful funding for the cancer research community. I now think of their organization as another money grab, a way to exploit people based on pity and ignorance.