It took a few years and a reported $3.3 million, but Compaq today said the news is official: it now owns the coveted domain name "www.altavista.com." [News.com]

Reports that Compaq's AltaVista site had bought the altavista.com domain are premature, the company says. [TechWeb]

Digital Equipment (DEC) has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts against the Campbell, California-based multimedia software company AltaVista Technology Incorporated, (ATI) over use of the AltaVista name, which is the trademark of DEC's popular search engine. [News.com]

Compaq Computer Corp. has agreed to pay a San Jose man $3.35 million for the Web address www.altavista.com, which is believed to be a record amount paid for a domain name, according to a source close to the deal. [SF Chronicle]