Last month the Church of Scientology issued a cease and desist order to
the New Zealand owner of a Tom Cruise parody website,
www.scientomogy.info demanding they shut down the site and transfer
ownership to the Church or face a law suit of up to $100,000. Via
email, the Church's law firm Moxon & Kobrin stated the website domain
was an infringement of their trademark and would cause a "likelihood of
confusion" with their own, breaking federal law, specifically citing
The Lanham Act , 15 U.S.C.  1125(a).

The Lanham Act contains the federal statutes governing trademark law in
the United States and the church would have to prove factors such as
"proof of actual confusion" "product types, proximity and marketing",
"their respective appearance and meanings", and "(bad) intention behind
selecting the mark"

Glen Stollery, the website's owner has now hit back at the church
stating "We have researched this and believe their claims are
completely without merit. The church can provide no proof as to any
confusion regarding the sites. For instance, scientology.info does not
even exist, so compared to scienTOMogy.info it is hardly a matter of
someone hitting the wrong key. We also have a Full Disclaimer at the
top of the front page and in the website's meta-tags stating that there
is no connection between ourselves and the church. Not to mention the
fact that the site is completely non-commercial in nature, and does not
generate a single cent of revenue nor offers any services of any kind.
It is a parody site showing the recent lunacy of Tom Cruise - confusion
of any kind with their site is literally impossible."

Stollery continues "The non-commercial use of a trademark as the domain
name of a website - the subject of which is consumer commentary about
the products and services represented by the mark - does not
constitute infringement under the Lanham Act." Bosley Medical Institute
v=2E Kremer (9th Cir., Apr. 4, 2005). In this instance, we are even one
step further removed as their trademark is "scientology" not
"scienTOMogy" Their claims are completely frivolous."

If this is the case then it would not be the first time the law firm
would be found guilty of filing frivolous complaints. In 1994, Helena
Kobrin of Moxon & Kobrin, counsel for the Church of Scientology, was
ordered to pay sanctions in the total sum of $17,775 for filing a
frivolous complaint in federal court. Stollery states on his website
that he believes this is simply a way of "scaring any critics into
instantly backing down at the prospect of costly lawsuits regardless of
their innocence." In closing he says to the church "I'm calling your
bluff. File your lawsuit we're keeping our domain... see you in court"