RE: [wg-c] new TLDs

["Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M." <rod@cyberspaces.org>]

Mark, I do not know whether it matters much what language you speak when the
issue is whether a trade mark is famous. I am sure that "McDonalds" and
"Coke" (to name two obvious examples) are well-recognized marks in countries
where English is not the native language. I do agree with you that there
seems to be an inherent tension in the generic/famous TM distinction.
>
> To the rest of the non-English-speaking world, they are already
> equivalent to random strings, or have quite different meanings from
> those intended.
>
> Most of you have a stronger legal and business background than I do,
> but I'll be happy to argue memorability and psychological theory for
> ages on this, as that happens to be one of my fields of expertise.  We
> can go round and round about how memorable a domain name is, how it's
> going to be categorized by a typical native speaker, whether it's more
> or less unique than other strings, whether it has intrinsic meaning
> outside of the content of the pages associated with it, and so on.
>
> I tried to bring an aspect of this up in WG-B: Psychologically, a
> famous mark becomes a generic term used for all entities in a category
> (e.g., kleenex, xerox, coke, etc.) and no amount of legislation,
> arguing, or litigation is going to change that fundamental aspect of
> human cognition.  When you start arguing "how it's used", "how it's
> remembered", and related areas, you're venturing into cognitive
> psychology.  This field has years of research which may or may not
> agree with the various claims people want to make about labels
> and how they're remembered and organized in the mind.
>
> I would strongly advise everyone to inform themselves about these
> areas if this is the foundation from which you're going to build
> sweeping policy.  Policy can be changed.  Cognitive processes are not
> so easily altered.
>
>
> --
> Mark C. Langston
> mark@bitshift.org
> Systems Admin
> San Jose, CA
>