RE: TM Sunrise +20 (Re: [wg-b] WG-B Report -Take II)

["Judith Oppenheimer" <joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com>]

Steve, who said hoarding trademarks?

I said hoarding domain names.  All told, twenty million of them.

Usurping twenty million domain names for trophy placement
on a shelf, before "consumers" have a shot at even one.

That's what I said.

Judith

------------------
The US trademark system allows any person file an application to register a
trademark based on an "intention to use" the mark. Once such an application
is approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office and passes the opposition
period, a the applicant obtains a registration upon submitting proof of bona
fide commercial use. Put differently, it is easy to obtain a federal
trademark registration. It was even easier prior to 1989. It's even easier
in most other countries, where use is not a requirement to obtain a
registration.Yet Nabisco has less than 900 registrations in the US. Why so
few when we could horde so many? Because Nabisco does not waste its time or
money collecting useless things. We have to justify the use of our time and
money to management and shareholders. We have a legal, fiduciary obligation
to not waste corporate assets (including cash).

I don't believe other companies operate much differently.

Steve Hartman
-----------------

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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bwg-n-friends@jetty.net
[mailto:owner-bwg-n-friends@jetty.net]On Behalf Of Judith Oppenheimer
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2000 1:15 PM
To: Hartman, Steve; 'Harald Tveit Alvestrand'; mpalage@infonetworks.com;
Wg-B@Dnso. Org
Subject: [bwg+] RE: TM Sunrise +20 (Re: [wg-b] WG-B Report -Take II)


I support the sunrise proposal as a fair and reasonable balance of the
trademark and non trademark interests in domain name ownership.

Steve Hartman
Nabisco, Inc.
----------------

No doubt.

A very casual search of the uspto database shows that Nabisco has over 882
U.S. trademark registrations, which
if true, means that during the "sunrise +20," Nabisco would be able to
register up to 18,522 domain names -- per TLD.

I was under the impression that the IPC, of which Nabisco is a member, was
*against* hoarding.

The question arises, how does this hoarding comply in any way with
"legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name" ... ?

Also Ellen Rony wrote that the IPC Proposal, "... would immediately provide
for potential exclusion of twenty million [domain names] for U.S. trademarks
alone."  (Keep in mind, it's taken 20 years for Network Solutions to reach a
registration base of ten million domain names.)

The Trademark Lobby says it is "protecting the consumer."  How is the
Trademark Lobby "protecting the consumer" by usurping *twenty million*
domain names for storage in its private coffers?**

Judith


**The "consumer" is the 23 million small businesses in the United States in
1998, who represent more than 99 percent of all employers in this country.

The "consumer" is the 52 percent of private workers and 38 percent of
high-tech works employed by "consumer"-owned small businesses.

Virtually all of the net new jobs in the United States, staffed by
"consumers", were provided by "consumer"-owned small businesses.

"Consumer"-owned small businesses use of the Internet is rapidly expanding.
In the past two years, "consumer"-owned small businesses with access to the
Internet has doubled from 21.5 percent to 41.2 percent.  Thirty-five percent
of "consumer"-owned small businesses maintain a Web site and one in three do
business transactions through their site.

Statistics source: Comments of the Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business
Administration, DNSO Working Group A Final Report to the ICANN Board, August
25, 1999