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IP: President Clinton Signs Anti-Cybersqatting Bill Into Law
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 13:51:35 -0500
EDUCAUSE WASHINGTON UPDATE --- DECEMBER 3, 1999 ***IN THIS ISSUE*** PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNS ANTI-CYBERSQUATTING BILL INTO LAW DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE UNVEILS NEW INTERNET ADDRESS SITE *** PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNS ANTI-CYBERSQUATTING BILL INTO LAW President Clinton this week signed into law a bill to prevent the bad faith registration and reselling of Internet domain names. "The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act" would allow trademark owners to seek statutory damages against defendants found to have registered the domain name with "bad faith intent to profit from that mark". While primarily associated with big-name private corporations, cybersquatting has also been a problem for the higher-education community. Some universities have had trouble with so-called lampoon Internet sites that seek to disparage the schools. As part of the law's guidelines for determining whether cybersquatting took place, courts may consider the intent to tarnish or create confusion over the source of a trademark or Internet site. Other important provisions in the new law include: Domain name registrar/registry liability: Domain name registrars and registries are not liable for monetary damages in domain name disputes unless they 1) fail to provide a court with requested documents necessary to establish the court's authority in determining the registration and use of a domain name; 2) suspended or modified the domain name without an express order of the court; or 3) willfully did not comply with a court order. Study on abusive domain name registrations involving personal names: The new law directs the Commerce Department, in consultation with the Patent and Trademark Office and Federal Election Commission, to provide Congress within six months of enactment of the law guidelines for resolving disputes involving the domain name registration of personal names. Critics of the new law have voiced concerns that it grants trademark owners overly broad protections and undermines efforts by ICANN to create an international uniform domain name dispute resolution policy. [<http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm>] DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE UNVEILS NEW INTERNET ADDRESS SITE The Department of Commerce announced yesterday the release of a new version of the InterNIC website. [<http://www.internic.net/>] The new site will provide the public with information regarding domain name registration and a directory of .com, .org, and .net domain name registrars currently accredited by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). As part of an agreement reached on November 10, 1999 [<http://www.icann.org/nsi/nsi-agreements.htm>], Network Solutions, Inc. will operate the InterNIC website on behalf of the Department of Commerce for the next six months, after which it will be transferred over to the Department of Commerce. *** Written from EDUCAUSE'S Washington office, "The EDUCAUSE Washington Update" is a free service of EDUCAUSE, an international nonprofit association dedicated to transforming higher education through information technologies. Anyone may subscribe to the Update by sending e-mail to listserv () listserv educause edu with "subscribe update firstname lastname" in the body of the message. To unsubscribe, send a "signoff update" command to the same address. If you would like more information about the Update or would like to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Garret Sern atgsern () educause edu.
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- IP: President Clinton Signs Anti-Cybersqatting Bill Into Law Dave Farber (Dec 05)