IP: World Body Proposes Outlawing 'Cybersquatting' on Internet Addresses

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

World Body Proposes Outlawing 'Cybersquatting' on Internet Addresses
By JERI CLAUSING []

[]
WASHINGTON -- The much-maligned practice of "cybersquatting" -- the speculating and pirating of potentially valuable 
Internet addresses -- would effectively be outlawed and the owners of famous trademarks could claim first rights to 
Internet domains bearing their names under recommendations issued Friday by the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO). 

The report to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the first attempt by any official 
governing body to draft an international set of rules for registering domain names. It was requested by the Clinton 
Administration last year when it handed oversight of the Internet's addressing system to ICANN, an international 
nonprofit corporation. 

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/articles/01domain.html