The government of Canada filed a complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center today over the domain name www.ca.gov. The complainant alleges that the domain name is confusingly similar to the Canadian government website – www.gov.ca. According to the filing, the complainant claims common law trademark and first use of the abbreviation “CA” and claims that the country of Canada was established prior to the establishment of the state of California. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quoted as saying, “The United States has http://www.usa.gov, so shouldn’t Canada have http://www.ca.gov?” The governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was unavailable for comment as he was busy filming the fourth installment of the Terminator series entitled Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.

Happy April Fools Day 😀