>The genie was let out of the bottle the day that the guy sold
>mcdonalds.com to McDonalds; the day that MTV started fighting to get
>mtv.com back from Adam Curry. Basically, it all began when the world
>started to realize that there was intellectual property and financial
>value to domain names.
As one of the lawyers who participated in the representation of MTV in that
case, I would say that that particular genie was let out of the bottle the
day Adam Curry registered mtv.com in his own name and began promoting a
music website under the name mtv.com (and not adam-curry.com).
One thing that I have pondered in the past five years is this: I had to
communicate with NSI at that time in connection with this case and
therefore I know that NSI was aware of the facts in the mtv.com case,
specifically that someone other than the owner of a trademark like MTV
could get the domain name, and that the TM owner's only remedy at that time
was a lawsuit. This case was, if memory serves me correctly, before the
Quittner article on mcdonalds.com. Virtually all cases of cyber-piracy
came after that event. What could NSI have done differently back in 1994?
>
>As it stands now, whether or not we like it, legal issues have come to
>dominate the process. One way or another, we will have to deal with
>them.
>
>--gregbo
>
>
