At 02:16 PM 5/7/99 , Martin B. Schwimmer wrote:
>The distinction is meaningless in this discussion, as the poster proposed
>his personal standard which is lower than the standard for a well-known
>mark in the most conservative jurisdiction. And the WIPO report uses the
>term conjunctively - the title of the Section is "The problem of notoriety;
>Famous and Well-known Marks."
It would be most helpful if all participants were to read the documents
that they are commenting upon. In this connection the pertinent document
is ANNEX VI - Policy For Domain Name Exclusions, which may be seen at
http://wipo2.wipo.int/process/eng/final/annex06.html. It says:
10. Exclusions. Applications may be submitted by the
owner of a mark requesting the grant of an exclusion for
the mark on the basis that it is famous or well-known
across a widespread geographical area and across
different classes of goods or services. The application
may seek the exclusion in all or some of the TLDs to
which this Policy applies.
Note that it is the disjunctive, "or", not the conjunctive "and".
>"It should be noted that a highly precise, strict differentiation between
>"famous" and "well-known" marks is not possible as these concepts are
>relative. In fact, the terms "famous" and "Well-known" are often used
>synonymously or conjunctively probably due to their similar underpinning.
>Mostert, "Famous and Well-known Marks", p. 21, (Butterworths 1997).
The very fact that the terms are not precise makes clear why the WIPO
exclusion List criterion must be something other than those terms.
Otherwise, we will see a sad replay of the old NSI problems where two
like-named companies come into conflict that would not have existed but for
the policy mistake. Prince sporting goods will argue that its name
"prince" is famous and/or well-known, and thus that it is entitled to be on
The List. The result will be that all other companies named Price (and
there are dozens of others) suddenly cannot get domain names that are
"prince.foo".
Can you answer this point, please? Isn't it true that allowing non-unique
marks onto The List will lead to conflicts?
