At 08:11 AM 1/23/99 -0800, you wrote:
>I think that, at least three of us, are in violent agreement here.<grin> It
>would seem to me that making the defense of a use easier would be prefered
>to reducing cost of offence. The problem, as I see it, is that there are
>small trademark-holders too and they also have to be protected.
Wouldn't disagree for a minute. A possible solution would be to invoke the
interference proceedings in the USPTO, except that by the time that were
done, the infamous NSI "thirty day" letter would have taken its toll. Just
one more example of the extra-legal effects of the NSI policy. See 37 CFR
2.91 et seq. Another difficulty is that the USPTO would have to be "brought
aboard" so that it would in fact accept domain name (i.e., common law
trademark) owners v. registered trademark owner disputes.
What we
>have typically seen are egregious examples of trademark bullying of domain
>holders. We have also seen egregious examples of domain-name squatters. At
>the moment, it appears that DNS squatters are generally losing the battles
>and are nothing more than a minor nuisance. This is not, IMHO, justifiable
>cause to let WIPO, or anyone else, practice general DNS censorship. The
>remedies abound for after the fact protection. There is no need for prior
>restraint activities.
>
Yes, but the remedies at present are often way outside the realm of financial
possibility for small parties on either side. USPTO procedures, though they
cost also, ought at least to be somewhat less expensive. The advantage of
the USPTO is that it DOES HAVE TRADEMARK EXPERTISE, which is not
to be found in NSI nor, so far as I know, in WIPO or any other alphabet soup
that does not daily practice trademark law -- and in this limited case I mean
U. S. trademark law.
Bill Lovell
__________________________________________________
To receive the digest version instead, send a
blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To SUBSCRIBE forward this message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNSUBSCRIBE, forward this message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Problems/suggestions regarding this list? Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
___END____________________________________________
