Ellen and all,
We couldn't agree with you more here Ellen. It seems that there are some
"Interested Parties" that feel or believe that TM's and DN's have some sort of
relationship that is special with regard to Domain Names. These folks that
argue this point usually have very little in depth understanding of Trademark
Law in the US, and almost none outside the US. There seems to be some
other unknown underlying interest in replaying these arguments which have
been argued over and over again for the past 4 years, with the same
eventual conclusion as the outcome....
Ellen Rony wrote:
> Roberto Gaetano wrote:
>
> >A trademark is not only a string of ASCII characters, it is (potentially) a
> >logo that is immediately recognizable even for people that do not read.
>
> Yes, and I wish we could get past the continual comparisons of trademarks
> and domain names. A trademark is geographically specific and context
> sensitive. Trademarks often have other identifying cues; stylistic type
> (see "ty" [tm]), color, and other design elements may be incorporated into
> a mark. A trademark must be used in commerce. It must be distinctive,
> which means that it cannot be a generic word for a category of products,
> rather than a single source. Identical marks may be registered, so long as
> they are used to identify the source of different classes of goods or
> services.
>
> Now, isn't it clear that this description differs from domain names, which
> may be used anywhere, in any context, and not necessarily for commercial
> purposes, so long as each is unique. Trademarks are not domain names.
> Domain names are not trademarks.
>
> Some time long, long ago, the drafters of IP treaties reognized that
> copyrights, patents, and trademarks were different types of intellectual
> property. Now we have yet another type of IP beast--domain names.
>
> So can we please stop trying to force this square peg into a round hole?
>
> Ellen Rony Co-author
> The Domain Name Handbook http://www.domainhandbook.com
> ================================ // ===================================
> ISBN 0879305150 *=" ____ / +1 (415) 435-5010
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ ) Tiburon, CA
> // \\ "Carpe canine"
> Join the GREY RIBBON CAMPAIGN to bring ICANN out of the shadows.
> See http://www.domainhandbook.com/icannt.html
Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Contact Number: 972-447-1894
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208
