[12320] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Name Reg. Time for Policy Change
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Russell Nelson)
Mon May 16 04:03:23 1994
Date: Sun, 15 May 94 15:41 EDT
From: nelson@crynwr.com (Russell Nelson)
To: bzs@world.std.com
Cc: nettech@crl.com, bruce@phantom.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199405150152.AA17143@world.std.com> (bzs@world.std.com)
Date: Sat, 14 May 1994 21:52:35 -0400
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
>From: "Joseph W. Stroup" <nettech@crl.com>
>The MTV situation is one of great interest to me. As far as I can tell
>there has been a joint sharing of the MTV servicemark & copyright with
>the person you mention. Its would seem that both parties granted each
>other a mutual license by their actions.
Since MTV withdrew his permission to use the mark when Curry left
MTV it seems to me that this is a fairly open and shut case. I
don't see any subtlety here.
Sure there's subtlety here. 1) Adam registered MTV.COM in his own
name, 2) he paid for the connection himself, and 3) he managed the
site on his own.
I would say that the question is "Should US trademark law apply to the
DNS just because the Internet is (now) largely a US thing and the NIC
is in the US?" We don't presume to apply US trademark law (e.g. where
yellow pages is a generic term) to the UK (where Yellow Pages is a
trademark).
If the answer is yes, then how do we deal with things like Adam
Curry's company called "On Ramp Incorporated" (onramp.com already
belongs to someone else)? Because, the NIC has acted as if the DNS is
independent of US Trademark law.
If the answer is no, the NIC should be prepared to get thousands and
thousands of new DNS registrations in a short period of time. And
then it'll have to deal with gold diggers who register Pepsi.com,
Coke.com, Leggs.com, etc.
My unschooled opinion is that US Trademark law should apply, solely
for pragmatic reasons. Yes there will be conflicts, but the law can
deal with them just like it deals with trademark conflicts between
existing merchants (hence the two national pretzel makers, Snyders of
Hanover PA, and Snyders of Lancaster PA).
P.S. Trademark registration costs $200 and might be a good idea if you
have a convenient DNS name like Inter.net or Internet.com or Radio.com.
