RE: [ga] Unfair?

[R.Gaetano@iaea.org]

Randy Canis wrote:
> 
> I have created a list of forty suggested alternative marks 
> (listed below) which a client may also want to consider 
> registering.  If you consider .org, .net, foreign countries, 
> etc. the amount of domain names registered to protect your 
> client's mark could be absolutely staggering.   
> 

I think that your reasonment, and the long list of domain names that
follows, proves essentially one thing: that we cannot deal with domain names
in the same way we deal with "traditional" Trademarks.
What sense does it make for a company to register thousands of names even
remotely connected with the brand they supposedly protect or alternatively
to prevent others from registering and using them?

I believe (as non-lawyer and non-trademark-owner) that the legal protection
of a brand name has its foundation in the rights of consumers that do not
have to be misled by a similar name, not in a "religious" approach that
considers "sacred" each and every string of characters that bares even vague
resemblance to the "holy string" that has to be protected.
Therefore I assume that what should be prevented is the misleading use of a
domain name to fool the consumer or to purposedly damage the registrant of a
similar name, but not the bona-fide registration of a domain name that will
be used independently from the supposedly "offended" party.

Question:
Do the owners of the famous fast-food chain have the right to kick out all
the McDonald-named businesses (and all variations on the theme) from the
yellow pages?
 ;>).

Regards
Roberto