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IP: "Sex, Lies and TLDs"
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 04:59:54 -0400
"Sex, Lies and TLDs" MSNBC.com (08/08/01); Meeks, Brock N. After trademark holders are finished exploiting pre-registration loopholes to claim attractive new TLD domain names that they have no trademark rights to, those awaiting general registration will find nothing left, argues Brock N. Meeks of MSNBC, and a columnist for Communications of the ACM. In the .info space, almost all generic .info names have been claimed already, even though under U.S. law descriptive terms like "dog" cannot be trademarked by those in the dog or pet business. However, trademark law quirks would allow a nail polish company to trademark the word "dog" for one of its brands of nail polish, says trademark attorney Bret Fausett. Overall, the sunrise period has given trademark holders a mammoth leg up over everyone else. Afilias consultant Michael Palage, who designed the .info sunrise period, was at first dismissive of the public's outcry over the situation, telling the Associated Press that Afilias' job was not to verify the legitimacy of trademark holders. Now Palage has done an about-face, saying, "we're going through looking for potential non-qualifying data," and pledging to "make sure that the integrity of the process is upheld." Palage also has said that Afilias will announce remedying measures. In one interesting case, U.S. citizen Pat Norbriga registered the domain name clinton.info without having trademark rights to it in order to save clinton.info from critics or cybersquatters. http://www.msnbc.com/news/611321.asp?cpl=1 For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/
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- IP: "Sex, Lies and TLDs" David Farber (Aug 11)