RE: Trademark classification DOES NOT work. Period.

[Robert Frank <bobf@corsearch.com>]

[Robert Frank]  Regretfully, the assumption below is flawed in both the US and UK.  Courts have held that domain names can (and do) serve as a source of origin for goods/services and thus qualify for trademark protection.

Bob


Perhaps starting from the assumption that a domain name, standing alone, is 
not trademark infringement at all, would be a good place to start.  It is the 
possible use of the domain name, not the address itself, that is the issue.  
USE of the domain name is something to be addressed by the jurisdictions of 
the individuals or companies who have a dispute, not by an international body 
who starts from the assumption that the use of an address is an infringement 
on its face.  I do believe that most Internet traffic is still of a non 
commercial nature.  Yet this vast majority of users is not even contemplated 
in the MOU with regard to domain name policies.  Even with regard to clearly 
non commercial TLDs like .nom or .arts.  

I firmly believe that using a domain name as an identifier has nothing to do 
with trademark.  The lynchpin of trademark law is still consumer confusion as 
to the source of a product or service, even after the complete legal quagmire 
known as "dilution" reared its ugly head.  Consumer seraching for Continental 
Airlines will not be confused when they find that www.continental.com points 
to Continental Cablevision.  They were merely consult their search engine.  It 
is a far different issue if Continental Cablevision began selling airline 
seats.  Until/unless that happened, there would be no confusion, thus no 
infringement, regardless of how many countries the trademark "Continental" was 
registered in.  




Mikki Barry                                 Attorney
Internet Policy Consultants                 http://www.netpolicy.com