William and all,
If I am not mistaken we have had this discussion way back on the
old gTLD-MoU list. I believe that answer is whether one can
Trademark a "TLD" as a "TLD "(None the less a DN). Under US Trademark
law, I don't believe that one can Trademark a "TLD" as a "TLD" or
"gTLD". This really points out that where Trademark law is behind the curve,
which has been our argument for some time and remains so. However,
it does bring to mind some thoughts on Trademarking some interesting
Domain Names! I won't go into this thought for now as it will no doubt
start some cat fighting and finger pointing all over again that is of course
unproductive. But if you give this some thought I think you can come
up with what I am purposefully not stating definitively..... >;)
Hint - I bet WIPO has though of what I am refering to. Read the WIPO
RFC closely, very closely!!!
William X. Walsh wrote:
> On 27-Feb-99 Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
> > Well, one thing came indirectly out of the trademark/DNS discussions is
> > that if a TLD name is trademarks, as a TLD name, the root-servers dare not
> > assign it to anyone else. If they did, it would be an infringement. If I
> > registered a trademark of .GOSHALMIGHTY, as a commercial trademark for a
> > TLD, implement same in my private TLD roots, advertise it with my own name
> > servers, and ICANN assigns it to someone else in the root-servers, then I
> > will go talk to a judge and win. I might even get punitive damages.
> >
> > It is arguable that I might even be able to force NTIA to install such a
> > TLD into the roots by court order. But I could certainly prevent it, should
> > I so choose.
>
> I don't know that I agree with this. I've CC'd this to the ifwp list to get
> some feedback there.
>
> I think you would still have to make a case that there is likelyhood of
> confusion, and I think it would depend on the mark. If the mark was very
> generic in nature, I think it would be much harder to make a case for this
> position.
>
> I doubt punative damanges would come into play unless you could provide it was
> being done with the intent to cause harm to the trademark holder, but IANAL so
> I may be incorrect here. I think this also would be hard to prove.
>
> ----------------------------------
> E-Mail: William X. Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 27-Feb-99
> Time: 02:02:57
> ----------------------------------
> "We may well be on our way to a society overrun by hordes
> of lawyers, hungry as locusts."
> - Chief Justice Warren Burger, US Supreme Court, 1977
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
