Re: [ICANN-EU] trademark vs. domain / legal aspect

[Marc Schneiders <marc@venster.nl>]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Andreas Fügner wrote:

> Dear Marc:
> 
> As much as I sympathize, Thomas is right.
> 
> There are already international trademark laws.
> Not every country applies them, not every court
> decides accordingly, no legal system is perfect. :-(
> It is the job of politicians to fix it.
> 
> ICANN can and should address conflicts, increase awareness,
> push for improvements, foster development, etc.
> ICANN cannot break the law or create new laws.

Address conflicts? Barcelona.com and address conflict? ICANN cannot break
laws, no. WIPO can and does, by introducing elements into UDRP which are
not there, like "moore legitamate owner". 

ICANN does create laws, in the practical sense of the word anyway. What
else is the UDRP?

> Only if you are interested in the legal issue, please read further, 
> if otherwise, please ignore from here.
> 
> There are two cases, where trademarks and domains are in conflict.
> a) trademarks registered and used for publishing.
> What every body does under a domain in essence is publishing. 
> Some publish private matters, others publish their business. 
> Sometimes it is a mixture of both. Thus, a trademark registered 
> and used for publishing could be violated.
> 
> b) trademarks notorious and famous all over the world.
> Only few trademarks are notorious ( over 60% of the population know it) 
> or famous (means > 80% of the population know it) all over the world. 
> Trademarks are supposed to identify the provider of a material or 
> immaterial product or service. 
> Another party using a trademark famous all over the world 
> is misleading its audience.

Yes, let this be so (though I would not accept Die Zeit claiming all
domains with Zeit in it, let alone, time, tijd, temps etc.), what does
this mean for Barcelona.com? Or Corinthians.com? Is the city of Barcelona
into publishing? Is a Brazilian soccer/football team into publishing?
No, but they are into money making. So they want the .com. UDRP gives them
a cheap way to get it. So they try. And WIPO is very helpful.

Have you ever wondered, why the city of Barcelona or the Brazilian
Corinthians did not go after the .org names? They would seem to be much
more appropriate for them, if they must have a gTLD. They already have a
ccTLD of course...

--
Marc Schneiders ------- Venster - http://www.venster.nl 
 marc@venster.nl - marc@bijt.net - marc@schneiders.org