Re: [wg-c] Retraction of previous proposal

["Mark C. Langston" <skritch@home.com>]

On 29 July 1999, "Rita M. Odin" <OdinR@arentfox.com> wrote:


>While the mere registration of a conflicting domain name does not per
>se const itute infringement, the use of a conflicting domain name can
>infringe or dilut e a trademark/service mark.  Whether or not
>property rights attach to a domain name is strictly dependent u pon
>the manner in which the domain name is used.  If someone uses the
>domain n ame in a trademark/service mark sense (i.e., it is used in
>the advertisement o f goods/services by displaying it, e.g., on the
>website) then it becomes a tra demark/service mark.  Clearly, domain
>names and trademarks/service marks are closely related, especially in
>light of the method of use employed by many bus iness on the
>Internet.


So what you're saying Rita, is that the issue is not one of needing
to police the registry database, as Kevin's been arguing, but instead
the much more difficult one of discovering how the name is being used
over time.

Correct?

So having access to the registry databases isn't really necessary, since
you could just employ a web-crawling program of some kind to hunt down
web pages that may infringe.

This would certainly cost time, but I don't see how the very act of
policing is suddenly as expensive as some have argued.

-- 
Mark C. Langston	     			Let your voice be heard:
mark@bitshift.org				     http://www.idno.org
Systems Admin					    http://www.icann.org
San Jose, CA					     http://www.dnso.org