Domain Name Rights Coalition

[DNRCounsel@aol.com]

The purpose of this message is to provide some basic information about the
Domain Name Rights Coalition in response to the numerous inquiries I received
after my posting early this week.  My apologies to anyone who thinks that
this posting is inappropriate; please flame privately.

On July 31, Michael Doughney (co-founder of DIGEX, an ISP in Beltsville, MD)
and I (telecommunications attorney, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, Rosslyn, VA,
former network manager, Morgan Stanley) founded the Domain Name Rights
Coalition which we launched at ONE ISPCon a week later.

Our purpose was to provide a voice for small businesses, Internet service
providers and individuals in response to the policies of Network Solutions,
Inc.  NSI created its Domain Name Dispute Policy behind closed doors, without
public notice, comment or appeal, and we objected to this lack of process,
and to the policy which allowed the suspension of a domain name by a
challenger with only a trademark and no proof or even allegation of
infringement.  

I was quoted in Aug. 16 issue of BNA's Electronic Information Policy Report
as saying: "If we are going to have a debate about trademark law as applied
to cyberspace, let's have it out in the open." and DNRC has been a part of
the debate every since.  At the State Department's Working Group on Domain
Names (organized by Brian Kahin of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government),
we met and debated with many of the trademark attorneys/organizations who
were invited to sit on IAHC.  

Nearly every day, the Domain Name Rights Coalition hears from individuals who
have received "cease and desist" letters from large companies.  In these
letters, companies demand that individuals or small businesses give up their
domain name because a word or two overlaps with a word or phrase in the
challenger's trademark.  These aren't "pirate" stories, so they don't make
the papers, but I believe they are much more pervasive than the pirate
stories.

The entrepreneurs and individuals are using basic dictionary words for a
myriad of legal, information, noncommercial and commercial purposes. Because
the large company is a latecomer to the Internet, but still wants the
shortest domain name possible, it ignores inconveniences such as the absence
of any likelihood of confusion (the basic legal test of infringement) and
sets out a list of threats.  I urge and help individuals to respond to these
letters, but it is hard to face off with a large company and its battery of
attorneys.  It makes it difficult for me to see the real threats and concerns
that Mr. Tramposch has so elegantly expounded on behalf of trademark owners.

There you have it.  The DNRC website is http://www.domain-name.org.  Please
be patient, it takes awhile to download.

- Kathryn Kleiman
General Counsel, Domain Name Rights Coalition
Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, P.L.C., Rosslyn, VA
www.domain-name.org