[9234] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Tired: WIRED. Wired: TUBED
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marc Horowitz)
Fri Dec 24 02:39:03 1993
To: emv@garnet.msen.com (Edward Vielmetti)
Cc: com-priv@uu.psi.com
In-Reply-To: [9232] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 93 02:37:59 EST
From: Marc Horowitz <marc@MIT.EDU>
>> Have there been any cases to date where an organization has been
>> forced to change its domain name as a result of trademark infringement?
Yes, but not quite as you describe.
Centerline Software <centerline.com>, makers of C development tools,
used to be called Saber Software, until someone sued them over their
name (this other company had it first). Not just their domain name,
but their company name. Centerline lost (settled out, maybe?), and
now their name is different. Their flagship product, saber, is now
called codecenter. (Of course, you'll find "alias saber codecenter"
in my .cshrc file :-)
This isn't quite the same as your example.
>> The first of these is pressuring the second to relinquish their domain
>> name because of trademark infringement
If they are serious, the first should be suing the second to
relinquish their name entirely. If WIRED doesn't mind WIRE keeping
their name in the real world, I can't see that it is reasonable to get
all upset about the similarity of the names in cyberspace. But I'm
not a lawyer.
Marc
