Re: 60-day waste period?

["Leo Smith" <barter@ntplx.net>]

Robert Shaw  write:
> There are many many more disputes than you cite. I'm know of many more
than
> 400 personally (I've got files and files of incidents of hijacked company

> names). 

Thank you for your reply...
>From your personal information, approximately, how many Hijackers are
there, in actuality (as opposed to the number of hijacked names). Even if
we multiply by a factor of 10, and assume we have 4,000 "problems" out of
800,000 users, that still amounts to one half of one percent of the total.

The needs of the trademark holders are already adequately protected by
statutes and treaties. The trademark community does have an already
existing legal remedy available whenever a trademark infringement occurs. 

Keep in mind that 3 out of 10 members on the IAHC committee are lawyers
working directly with the trademark holders. Their advocacy for a wait is
understandable...it helps them, and it doesn't cost them anything. The 60
day wait does impose a significant cost in terms of time and hassle on
literally hundreds of thousands of totally innocent bystanders. 

If the trademark holders prevail in convincing IAHC to keep the 60 day
wait, I can see a strong possibility that several independent lawsuits will
be filed in various countries by aggrieved registrants seeking to overturn
the 60 day delay...and in some cases, they will prevail. Court orders
against registries will then issue in those countries where the lawsuits
succeed. This 60 day delay issue will not go away if IAHC members follow
the suggestions of the trademark lawyers serving on the committee.

----------
> From: Robert Shaw <robert.shaw@itu.int>
> To: Leo Smith <barter@ntplx.net>
> Subject: Re: 60-day waste period?
> Date: Friday, January 10, 1997 10:12 AM
> 
> Leo Smith wrote:
> > 
> > In balancing the benefits of a 60 day wait against the costs to the
> > Internet Community, please consider the following argument against any
> > wait. I would welcome your feedback....(this posting was previously
sent to
> > the discussion group, Sally Abel, Albert Tramposch and Carl Oppendahl:
> > 
> 
> Thank you for your private note and your posts to the iahc-discuss list.
> 
> > "If out of 800,000 .com URL users, only 400 have any involvement in a
> > dispute resolution involving trademark controversy (either by NSI's
vehicle
> > or by court proceedings), then, accepting all you say to be true, the
> > question still comes down to this:
> > 
> 
> There are many many more disputes than you cite. I'm know of many more
than
> 400 personally (I've got files and files of incidents of hijacked company

> names). 
> 
> Most are never heard of because companies consider it easier to pay off
domain 
> name extortionists than to wage court battles. The numbers I have given
on
> speculators are directly from NSI and they would know better than anyone.
> 
> > Are the benefits that MAY be realized by 400 trademark holders and 400
URL
> > holders significant enough to warrant imposing a major inconvenience
and
> > hassle on the 799,600 other URL users whose URLs will never be involved
in
> > a trademark dispute?
> 
> Again, the incidences of disputes and hijackings are far more than the
public
> is aware of.
> 
> > Speed is at play here as well. It is quite consistent to agree with
you, on
> > one hand, that some of the benefits you predict may come true under a
60
> > day delay, and at the same time reject ANY delay at all, simply because
the
> > theoretical benefits of the 60 day wait to the 400 URL users who
actually
> > have encountered a need for the benefit far outweigh the costs imposed
on
> > the other 799,600 users who, with zero wait time, will never in their
life
> > encounter a trademark conflict over the use of their URL.
> > If a trademark rights holder has a problem with a URL, take all legal
> > action necessary against the alleged infringer. Period."
> 

> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Robert
> -- 
> Robert Shaw (shaw@itu.int)
> Advisor, Global Information Infrastructure
> International Telecommunication Union (http://www.itu.int)
> Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland
> 
> Note: IAHC member, expressing personal opinions