Dennis Toeppen

Dennis Toeppen is an American entrepreneur and was the owner of a litigious bus company Suburban Express. He was a party to two cases of first impression relating to Domain Name registration.

Dennis Toeppen
Born1964 (age 56–57)
Mount Prospect, Illinois
EducationBS, MS, MBA
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Northwestern University
University of Chicago
Years active1983–2019
Known forDomain Litigation, Bus Transportation
Websitetoeppen.com

Early life and education

Dennis Eric Toeppen grew up in Mount Prospect, Illinois. He graduated from Prospect High School in 1982 and enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, majoring in electrical engineering. He later changed his major to business, and graduated in 1987.[1] Thereafter, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.[2]

Domain Registration & Trademark Litigation

In 1995, Toeppen registered about 200 internet domain names including some which were similar to well known companies and popular trademarks.[3] Some of them included panavision.com (Panavision), deltaairlines.com (Delta Air Lines), neiman-marcus.com (Neiman Marcus), eddiebauer.com (Eddie Bauer) and yankeestadium.com (New York Yankees).[3] Some of these companies, like Delta Air Lines,[4] paid Toeppen to acquire the domain names from him.[5]

In 1996, Panavision, a camera manufacturing company, sued Toeppen for trademark infringement instead of paying him $13,000 for the domain. In 1998, the court ruled that Toeppen had to relinquish the domain name to Panavision.[3][6][7][8] In a similar case brought in 1996, Intermatic Inc., a timer manufacturing company, sued Toeppen rather than pay him $5,000 for the domain name intermatic.com.[9] The court ruled that the domain be transferred to Intermatic but ruled Intermatic had not proven willful trademark infringement or unfair competition.[10]

Both the Panavision and Intermatic cases were matters of first impression for the U.S. Courts in dealing with trademarks and domain registrations.[11] The practice of registering trademarked words as domains for sale to trademark holders became known as Cybersquatting, a term that was first used by a court in 1998.[12][13] In November 1999, after the Panavision case had ended, and while Intermatic Inc. v. Toeppen was still pending, the United States gave trademark holders a cause of action against registrants of domain names containing trademarks, in the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act.[5]

Bus transportation

In 1983, Toeppen founded Suburban Express to provide transportation from Urbana-Champaign and the surrounding area to Chicago. After waging an initial price war with rival Greyhound Lines, fares in competitive markets had been reduced, and Suburban Express' ticket sales in Urbana-Champaign equaled those of Greyhound by 1985.[1]

Toeppen also started Allerton Charter Coach, Inc., a charter bus company with three buses and four vans as of 2014. It operated as a subcontractor for Suburban Express.[14]

After sending a promotional email that stated "You won't feel like you're in China on our buses", Suburban Express was sued by the Illinois Attorney General in April 2018 for civil rights violations. The lawsuit was settled out of court by way of a consent decree which contained no finding or admission of wrongdoing.[15]

Toeppen closed Suburban Express and Allerton Charter Coach shortly after, "I've been tired of this business since about 2001."[16]

References
  1. Rozek, Dan (1985-10-20). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). Retrieved 2016-02-22.
  2. "Dennis Toeppen's website". Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  3. Bidgoli, Hossein. The Internet Encyclopedia: P - Z. p. 455.
  4. Wayner, Peter (September 21, 1998). "Compressed Data; What's in a Web Name? Sometimes, Mistaken Identity". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
  5. Newenham, Pamela (2013-05-30). "Make sure you have control of your domain – or prepare to pay the price". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
  6. Spinello, Richard. Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace.
  7. Graham, Lawrence (1999). Legal Battles That Shaped the Computer Industry. Praeger. pp. 135–138. ISBN 1567201784.
  8. Panavision Int'l, L.P. v. Toeppen, 945 F. Supp. 1296 (C.D. Cal. 1996), aff'd, 141 F.3d 1316 (9th Cir. 1998).
  9. Peter, Lewis (1996-09-12). "The Internet's Gatekeeper May Cash In on Its Role". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  10. "Intermatic Inc. v. Toeppen, 947 F. Supp. 1227 (N.D. Ill. 1996)". Retrieved 15 June 2016. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  11. "Intermatic Inc. v. Toeppen, 947 F. Supp. 1227 (N.D. Ill. 1996)". 23 March 2001. Retrieved 15 June 2016. As in Panavision International LP v Toeppen...The particular issues in this case were primarily issues of first impression and at the relevant period there was a lack of legal precedent regarding issues arising from the intersection of trademark law and the Internet. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. "Avery Dennison v Sumpton". Intellectual Property in Cyberspace: Domain Names & Trademarks. Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  13. Isenberg, Doug. "The Origins of 'Cybersquatting'". Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  14. "Buses". Allerton Charter website. Retrieved 2014-01-28.
  15. "College bus company accused of mocking Asian students settles lawsuit from attorney general — but likens deal to state extortion". Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  16. "Suburban Express shuts down". www.chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
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