Re: Conflict resolution?

["G. Gervaise Davis III" <ggd@iplawyers.com>]

Gert - the honest answer is twofold - one of the NSI lawyers was a TM 
lawyer and is of the opinion, universally opposed by the rest of the 
TM Bar, that all TM owners should be protected at the expense of 
domain name owners, who are little guys. The courts are beginning to 
agree with us and not NSI - I won one case on that specific issue in 
federal court..

Second, NSI is trying to protect its butt and simply wants to shift 
its exposure to others.




On 21 Nov 96 at 9:46, Gert Blij wrote:

> From: G. Gervaise Davis III <ggd@iplawyers.com>
> Date: Thursday, November 21, 1996 07:10
> 
> On 19 Nov 96 at 11:58, Gert Blij wrote:
> 
> > From: Aveek Datta <MoNoLiTH+@CMU.EDU>
> > Date: Monday, November 18, 1996 11:18
> > 
> > Domain names were  always supposed to confer no trademark status.
> 
> I can't agree with this, neither with the "first come, first serve"
> argument. The present conflict resolution document very specifically
> refers to the right of trademark owners to _their_ domain name and
> has a whole lot of other great rules and regulations. The problem is
> that they are only words and are not enforceable, other than for the
> two parties to go to court (in America) to slug it out.
> 
> Gert
> 
> >>>>Gert and others -
> 
> You are, respectfully, both wrong.  The problem is that a domain
> name is not automatically a trademark use 
[etc]

Then why does NSI put this in its Conflict Resolution Policy document:

"
5.  [etc]
At the  same time, Registrant acknowledges that Network Solutions may
be presented with information that a Domain Name registered by
Registrant violates the legal rights of a third party.  Such
information includes, but is not limited to, evidence that the
second-level Domain Name (i.e., not including .COM, .ORG, .NET, .EDU,
or .GOV) is identical to a valid and subsisting foreign or United
States federal Registration of a trademark or service mark on the
Principal Register that is in full force and effect and owned by
another person or entity ("Complainant"): "

Gert
G. Gervaise Davis III, Business and Intellectual Property Lawyer
Davis & Schroeder P.C., P.O. Box 3080, Monterey, CA 93942
voice - 408.649.1122      facsimile - 408.649.0566
Visit our WebPage at http://www.iplawyers.com for more information
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