[9232] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Tired: WIRED. Wired: TUBED
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward Vielmetti)
Fri Dec 24 00:44:07 1993
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 93 00:43 EST
From: emv@garnet.msen.com (Edward Vielmetti)
To: com-priv@uu.psi.com
Have there been any cases to date where an organization has been
forced to change its domain name as a result of trademark infringement?
Say for instance that I have started up a network with like-minded
teetotalling laborers called the "Temperate Unionmen's Business
Exchange" and register a domain "tube.net". Years earlier a
river-rafting firm called "Down the Tubes" had registered a
"tube.com". An upscale glossy magazine catering to the burgeoning
and demographically interesting class of people interested in modern
vacuum tube technology has started up (the magazine is TUBED), and
they register a "tubed.com" to do on-line subscription support et al.
We temperate union men are now threatened by the upscale magazine
who has some mistaken notion that their TUBED trademark is somehow
threatened by our temperate business exchanges and our acronym.
How has the NIC handled these disputes in the past? The obvious
answer ("first come first served") has always been balanced against
the necessity of not letting other people hijack well-known trademarks.
Certainly I would have a hard time taking HEWLETT-PACKARD.COM
(even though it's not currently registered) without the NIC (and HP)
getting on my case.
The immediate similarity is to the disagreement between WIRED magazine,
WIRE (the Women's Information and Resource Exchange), and Under the
Wire Inc., owners respectively of 'wired.com', 'wire.net', and 'wire.com'.
The first of these is pressuring the second to relinquish their domain
name because of trademark infringement, a tactic which has not endeared
them to their readership, nor apparently to the owner of the third who
is getting a fair bit of misrouted mail.
Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, Msen Inc. emv@Msen.com
Msen Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI 48103 +1 313 998 4562 (fax: 998 4563)
Harris's Lament: all the good names are already taken.
