Internet Marketing Digest #0583 -Reply
MRADCLIFFE@gcwf.com ((MRADCLIFFE@gcwf.com))
Fri, 5 Jan 1996 08:05:25 -0800
I am the attorney that represents InterNIC and helped develop the
policy. The short answer to the question is that no court has found
that use of a domain name infringes the rights of a trademark holder
and the issue depends on the domain name and trademark. Several
lawsuits have been brought, but they have all settled. On the other
hand, most lawyers would tell you that it would be very dangerous to
register a domain name which is used as a trademark by someone else.
The problem is that the domain name structure and the trademark law
do not fit together very well. Two people can use the same trademark
in the same country for sufficiently different goods (ie ADOBE for
software and ADOBE for farm equipment), but the Domain Name System
provides for only one ADOBE.COM (although you can have ADOBE.UK or
ADOBE.US, once again one of each). Similarly, under trademark law you
can have two companies using the same trademark for the same goods in
two different countries if they only use it in that country (such as
ADOBE for farm equipment in the US and ADOBE for farm equipment in
Australia). However, there is only one ADOBE.COM. Currently, we are
working on how to deal with this problem, but for the short term it
will remain a very difficult one. In fact, it is even more complex
when you consider that you could have multiple potential
"legitimate" applicants for the same domain name.
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