[ga-udrp] Re: International TMs

[Eric Dierker <eric@hi-tek.com>]

You have to be careful when sending me an email wherein you claim to make
arguments which are no more ridiculous than ....

I believe to really understand international treaties and trademarks you need to
get into bilateral trade agreements first and then go to the WTO charter and
members. Then you have to take everything you just read and throw it out the
window. Real enforcement of foreign trademarks comes from a desire to do further
trade with the country which is the origin of the trademark.  The U.S. is the
largest open economy consumer in the world. If you want our trade you enforce
our trademarks.
The emerging economy of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the U.S. have a
signed bilateral trade agreement that has yet to be ratified by both sides
congress/Assembly. Even before that goes into effect you can now get actual
effective enforcement of U.S. Trademarks there.

Now you should know that the 62 page of text and the 62 pages of appendixes in
that trade agreemnent nowhere nohow mentions domain names. As a matter of fact I
do not remember a single mention of the word Internet.  But as someone who is
working on the internet policy for Vietnam I can gauran-damntee you that if you
try registering cocacola.vn when it becomes available to the outside world in
the next few weeks we will enforce any rights cocacola may assert to that name.
However I have a high level of confidence that if you register coke.vn you will
be able to keep it. They will enforce a true trademark but not bend over
backwards to pander to American mega-corps.

My point is that you cannot apply logic, or even the rule of law to the IP
versus domain holder rights arena you need to apply economic power politics.
Here I believe a study showed that the vicious attacks and reverse hijacking of
fair names which may also be trademarked hurt the companies more in PR than the
name was ever worth. Public opinion does effect these big companies. I am
working with a group to design and market a UDRP which will be very public and
on an internet pro and con list type format.  The complaints and responses will
all be open to public comment, in fact public comment will be a factor in
determining the outcome. The judges and the "counsel" will be right off the
lists we all participate in. Shoot you may even be chosen as someones advocate
with Corliss, Williams and Walsh sitting as the judges and me as the opposing
advocate. Yes it will cost the loser a little money to help fund the site and
help developing countries provide IT schools.

Sorry too long,

NameCritic wrote:

> Something I find interesting. I wrote to get an International Trademark.
> This is the response.
>
> "It is possible to seek an International Trade Mark Registration but as an
> American company/citizen, you would be unable to obtain such a registration
> because America is not yet a signatory to the specific international
> agreement. "
>
> Domain Names resolve addresses which are International in nature. If US
> Trademarks are not International Trademarks through the US'
> Non-participation in the Treaty, then how can Domain Names be infringing on
> said Trademarks. The Trademarks that do NOT have International Protection do
> not apply to Domain Names. Then it would go in order of importance.
> International Trademark, Domain Name, US Trademark.
>
> Some US Trademarks are infringing upon domain names and the trademarks that
> are too similar should be taken away and given to the domain name holder
> IMO.
>
> That argument I just made is no more ridiculous than the one US TM Holders
> make when saying they have a "RIGHT" to domain names that are similar to
> their US Trademark.
>
> Chris McElroy aka NameCritic

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