Re: [wg-c] Setting a bad example

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

On 5 August 1999, "Kevin J. Connolly" <CONNOLLK@rspab.com> wrote:

> It bears noting that "drug.com" in the context of pharmaceuticals
>does not infringe or implicate any kind of trademark I can imagine.
>"Drug" is at best descriptive, if not generic, in this context (I've
>always been fuzzy about whe re there line between generic and
>descriptive come in, but in this case, I'm reasonably sure, there's
>no trademark involved).
>
> I.e., it's not cybersquatting to register "drug.com" intending to
>sell it to a drug company, "auto.com" for sale to a car company, or
>"propellorbeanie.com" for sale to the IETF :-)

I didn't mean to imply that there was anything infringing about drug.com.
But it's this kind of behavior that encourages other people to go out
and buy up every domain name they can get their hands on, hoping for
a huge payoff from large companies, which leads to the infringement
battles and the policing headaches the companies fear.  In short,
the TM interests tend to create self-fulfilling prophecies by dangling
this sort of cash in front of DN holders.

-- 
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