Re: 60 day wait

[Dave Crocker <dcrocker@imc.org>]

At 6:45 AM -0800 1/14/97, William M. Gilligan  <webmaster@lib.oru.edu> wrote:
>Why not impose a system that is self policing. If someone uses a
>trademark, let the infringed upon person / company sue. It will only
>take one or two of these suits and the practice will stop.

	The problem with that approach -- which is pretty much what we have
today -- is that the holder of a domain name never has any assurance that
someone won't come along and take it away from them.  You could argue that
that is true with ANY use of a name, today, in the real world, but the
Internet has changed the dynamic considerably.

	When you use a name, today, the population of potential challengers
against you is quite limited, possibly as small as the county in which you
use it, but certainly no larger than your country.  While 250 Million
potential challengers is impressive, it's nothing like 4 billion.  The
Internet makes every user of every name subject to 5 billion potential
challengers.

d/


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Dave Crocker, Director                                       +1 408 246 8253
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[IAHC member, expressing strictly (or loosely) personal opinions]