Barcelona.com, Inc. v. Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
330 F.3d 617 (2003)
A Spanish citizen incorporated Barcelona.com, Inc. (plaintiff) in Delaware and registered the domain "Barcelona.com" to build a Barcelona tourism site. After the company failed to raise enough funding, it offered to sell the domain to the city council of Barcelona (defendant), which instead demanded the domain and, when refused, won a UDRP dispute-resolution proceeding ordering the transfer. Barcelona.com appealed to federal court under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), but the district court applied Spanish trademark law, found the domain use unlawful, and ordered the transfer anyway.
Whether the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act authorizes federal courts to overturn a decision rendered under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy if that decision runs counter to or undermines the Lanham Act.