[ga] Re: [ncdnhc-discuss] Beanie Babies domain name ruling illustrates limits of trademarks

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Chris and all,

  Thanks Chris for bringing this case to our attention.  It again confirms
our [INEGroup's] contention from the time before the soon to be
ill fated UDRP was imposed by ICANN upon the stakeholder/user
community and now questionably administered by WIPO.

  I hope that this decision will open up additional appeals or other
legal cases on DN's that WIPO has clearly, using the UDRP feloniously
issued poor or wrong decisions on.

Chris Chiu wrote:

> A United States Federal appeals court has thrown out a trademark lawsuit by
> Ty, the makers of Beanie Babies stuffed animals, against a reseller of its
> products who had registered www.bargainbeanies.com. The court justified its
> decision in part on the idea that "you can't sell a branded product without
> using its brand name, that is, its trademark." The tribunal also warned that
> a "trademark that describes a basic element of the product, as 'Beanies'
> does, is not protected unless the owner can establish that the consuming
> public accepts the word as the designation of a brand of the product," and
> that the term "may 'catch on' to the point where the mark becomes generic,
> and then Ty will have to cast about for a different trademark."
>
> See
> http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights
>
> Sincerely,
> Christopher Chiu
> Technology Policy Analyst
> American Civil Liberties Union
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@icann-ncc.org
> http://www.icann-ncc.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss

Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 127k members/stakeholders strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 972-244-3801
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208


--
This message was passed to you via the ga-full@dnso.org list.
Send mail to majordomo@dnso.org to unsubscribe
("unsubscribe ga-full" in the body of the message).
Archives at http://www.dnso.org/archives.html