[801] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
IETF questions -- Internet growth
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barry Shein)
Sat Jun 1 17:19:54 1991
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 91 17:17:04 -0400
From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
To: vcerf@NRI.Reston.VA.US
Cc: david@twg.com, ietf@isi.edu, com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: vcerf@NRI.Reston.VA.US's message of Sat, 01 Jun 91 16:30:06 -0400 <9106011630.aa09305@NRI.NRI.Reston.VA.US>
I can't help but wonder what would happen if someone sent in a domain
name (or significant part with an explanation of how it is used) to
the US Trademark Office (or other nation's) and registered it?
That only costs about $300 barring challenges or complications.
Note that one does not have to register a trademark to have
protection, but it does add some force to it (speak to a lawyer, there
are subtle and not-so-subtle implications not suitable for this list.)
Even the force of common law trademark (which costs $0) might be
strong enough to protect current domain names, particularly where they
are clearly recognizable as a reasonable variation on the
organization's mark (eg. att.com).
I am fairly sure none of this would apply to IP numbers, so let's
spare ourselves that point. Although I don't know if there is any
precedent with "business damage" claims arising from, for example, the
phone company changing your business phone number on you. Perhaps
they're well protected against such claims, but they may well be the
only ones (TPC is often an exception.)
-Barry Shein
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