Former Kansas Jan. 6 defendant wins Web domain battle against Johnson County

First, the Department of Justice, now the Johnson County Commission in Kansas. Former Jan. 6 defendant Will Pope has fought both. And won.

Pope, who represented himself in his Capitol riot case — and whose criminal charges were dismissed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office — has emerged victorious in a battle with the Board of County Commissioners over a Web domain he registered more than four years ago.

“I am pleased to announce that I have (as expected) defeated the Johnson County, Kansas Board of Commissioners in their egregious attempt to steal this domain,” Pope said in a statement.

“While I had hope(d) to retire from the practice of law after beating the United States Government in my January 6 case, I followed the path of Michael Jordan, knowing that sometimes the great ones have to come out of retirement for more glorious victories.”

County representatives did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.

Pope, 39, said the Board of County Commissioners tried to take www.jocokansas.com, which he registered in December 2020.

The county filed a complaint in April with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center against Pope and the registrar, NameCheap Inc., of Phoenix. It alleged that Pope was infringing on the county’s JOCO branding and engaging in cybersquatting activity, using the county’s “JOCO Marks” to host pay-per-click links associated with — and competing with — the county’s products and services.

The Johnson County Commission didn’t know who it was dealing with when it first filed the complaint, because Pope had registered the domain through a company that kept his name private.

In its June 3 decision, the administrative panel deciding the case found that the commission failed to prove any of the three elements necessary to grant its request that Pope’s Web domain be transferred to the county.

County claimed strong trademark rights

The commission said in its complaint that Pope’s jocokansas.com domain “is identical or confusingly similar” to the county’s JOCO-related domains.

The Johnson County website, www.jocogov.org, was registered in 2002, according to the complaint. Since at least 2003, the county said, it “has prominently and continuously used the trademark JOCO as a distinctive, unique nickname for the county, Johnson County, Kansas, in connection with a variety of local media and community information goods and services.”

Around 2014, it said, the trademark use was expanded to include JOCO KANSAS.

The JOCO Marks are also featured throughout the county’s social media platforms, the complaint said, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X, serving as essential ways to distribute information to residents.

In addition to the jocogov.org domain, the complaint said, the county owns numerous other domain names that incorporate the JOCO Marks. Because of its extensive use of the JOCO Marks for more than 20 years, the county argued, it has developed strong trademark rights for them. Pope’s site, it said, capitalizes on the county’s established reputation and the public’s recognition of the JOCO Marks, which creates a misleading association.

Pope’s use of the domain also diverts internet traffic intended for the county and its associated entities, it said, and “diminishes the value of the JOCO Marks by linking them to a commercialized, ad-driven website rather than the legitimate and reliable goods and services Complainant provides to its community.”

Pope’s actions, the county said, indicated he was using the domain “in bad faith and for commercial purposes.”

In his May 7 response, Pope argued that the county had no trademark rights to the domain and that he had registered it for his business and academic studies. He said, however, that three weeks after registering, ”my plans to develop it were derailed by the events of January 6, 2021, and by my four-year legal battle with the United States government — which I won.”

Pope told The Star he had planned to develop the site as a business property for his company, Free State Kansas, immediately after registering it on Dec. 15, 2020.

The project, he said, was a component of the Ph.D. in leadership communication he’s pursuing through Kansas State University. But he said after being charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, he didn’t have time to work on it.

Pope was indicted on two felony counts — civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding — along with six misdemeanors. The government dismissed the felony obstruction count and two misdemeanor counts last year, and on Jan. 20, his entire case was dismissed as a result of Trump’s executive order granting clemency to the nearly 1,600 Capitol riot defendants.

“Mine to do with as I please”

The Web domain dispute was decided by Frederick M. Abbott, a professor at Florida State University who is an expert on international law.

In his decision, Abbott said the county failed to prove that the disputed domain name was identical or “confusingly similar” to a trademark the county had rights to. The county also did not prove its argument that Pope had no rights or legitimate interests in regard to the domain name, he said.

Abbott also determined that the county failed to prove that Pope registered and was using the domain name in bad faith. Abbott found, however, that it did not appear the county had filed the complaint “for purposes of harassing Respondent as an individual or business.”

Pope posted the decision and his statement on his website. The county’s action, he said, “weaponized the Johnson County government against a Kansan in an attempt to steal a valuable property from a Kansas business.”

In its complaint, Pope said, the Johnson County Commission “arrogantly noted” that it was the governing body of the state’s most populous county.

“I would like to note for the record that they (and their highly paid attorneys) lost to (a) guy from the ghetto of Topeka,” he said.

Pope said the domain is now “mine to do with as I please.”

“If I choose to develop it, I will, or if I choose to sell it to an interested business or organization, I will,” he said. “This is my decision alone to make.

“The Board of County Commissioners of Johnson County Kansas should have never attempted to steal it. I hope this will be a lesson to all governments to respect private property and refrain from seizing what you covet by force.”