FC: Commerce Dept. refuses to bless .GOD and .SATAN top-level domains

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 14:04:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Joe Baptista <baptista () pccf net>
To: <public () tlda net>
cc: <declan () well com>
Subject: Your Recent E-Mail to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans (fwd)

let the games begin

this reply is in reference to

http://www.dot-god.com/information/doc-jan-21-2002.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 12:15:53 -0500
From: Kathy Smith <ksmith () ntia doc gov>
To: baptista () dot-god com
Subject: Your Recent E-Mail to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans

Dear Mr. Baptista:  Thank you for your electronic mail message to
Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans expressing your concerns about the
introduction of new top level domains by the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  Secretary Evans forwarded your
message to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA) for a response because the agency serves as his principal advisor
on telecommunications and information policy issues, including the
transition to private sector management of the Internet domain name
system.

On November 16, 2000, ICANN selected seven new top level domains for
introduction into the Internet domain name system - - .aero, .biz, .coop,
.info, .museum, .name, and .pro.  ICANN is now in the process of
evaluating its selection process prior to any additional rounds of
selection. Thus, your concerns about the potential introduction of new
top level domains for ".god" and ".satan" are more appropriately directed
to ICANN.

With respect to your assertion of intellectual property rights in either
a ".god" or ".satan" top level domain, I direct your attention to
Examination Guide No. 2-99, "Marks Composed, in Whole or in Part, of
Domain Names," (Sept. 29, 1999) issued by Department of Commerce's Patent
and Trademark Office (PTO).  This guide is available on PTO's web site at
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/notices/guide299.htm.  In general,
PTO has determined that a top level domain name, when used as a registry
under which lower-level domain names are registered, does not function as
a source identifier subject to service-mark rights.  See also Image
Online Design, Inc. v CORE Association, 120 F. Supp. 2d 870 (C.D. Cal.
2000).

Sincerely,  Kathy Smith, Chief Counsel, NTIA




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