Re: [wg-b] Pay who for it?

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Martin B. Schwimmer wrote:

> If someone files for PERRIER-JOUET or TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES or
> THENEWYORKTIMES as a trademark application in a country which has signed
> GATT-TRIPS, the owners of these AUFMs potentially have rights, not
> privileges.

"Potential" rights, yes. which is to say, they have NO fixed, automatic,
pre-emptive right to an exclusion, EVEN IN THE AREA OF TRADEMARK REGISTRATIONS.
Domain name registrations, of course, are *not* trademark registrations.

> If someone files a DN for such marks, if the owner of the AUFM should pay a
> registrar for the "privilege" that the registrar not sell the name to a
> third party first, then you are describing the sort of privilege selling
> racket that the Corelone Family specializes in.

Not true. There will be a UDRP that will allow them to challenge any such
registrations.

Exclusions are a very blunt instrument. They create as many problems as they
solve, to put it charitably. The issue is not whether cybersquatting will be
discouraged but how, at this point. UDRP protects famous mark holders more
evenhandedly than an exclusion.