Re: Warehousing, TM violations & the new gTLD's

["Christopher J. Post" <cp15@cornell.edu>]

I'm a little disappointed that my post hasn't raised much of a discussion.
Are these issues important to the new gTLD's?

At 11:11 AM 8/15/97 -0400, Bob Helfant wrote:
>Let me say this for this group.  Best Domains does not traffic in obvious
>trademark dispute names. 

The InterNIC's whois records and their own web site
(http://www.bestdomains.com/domains/index.html) 
refute this statement.  They could say they won't do it anymore, but they
obviously have and do traffic in such names.  I guess I should provide some
additional examples:
avon.net, mtv.net, m-tv.com, howardjohnsons.com.  These took me about 3
minutes to find.  Avon.net, an interesting example, is currently on hold,
but Globecomm is the admin contact:
GlobeComm Inc AVON3-DOM
   Bowling Green Station, Box 323
   New York,, New York 10274-0323
   Domain Name: AVON.NET
   Domain Status: On Hold
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
      DNS, Administration  DA22-ORG  dns@GLOBECOMM.COM
      tel.: 212-425-3477
Fax- - - - .: 212-425-3487
   Billing Contact:
      DNS, Administration  DA22-ORG  dns@GLOBECOMM.COM
      tel.: 212-425-3477
Fax- - - - .: 212-425-3487

------------------------------------------------
   Domain Name: M-TV.COM

   Administrative Contact:
      ESPINOZA, ANTONIO BEN  ABE6  NOVELTY@PACBELL.NET
      619671-0357
   Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
      Cool, The Master of  CTM-ORG  Domains@BESTDOMAINS.COM
      +1 (212) 425-3477
Fax- +1 (212) 425-3487
   Billing Contact:
      ESPINOZA, ANTONIO BEN  ABE6  NOVELTY@PACBELL.NET
      619671-0357

It is clear that Globecomm has registered dozens of trade-marked names and
they also list these domains for sale on their web site for outrageous
prices.  
Assuming Globecomm was able to sell 'intel.org', they would get about $2750
of the $15,000 asking price.  I wonder how many companies 
Globecomm has shaken down to buy back the rights to their own name?  
I would assume that many companies which found out that Globecomm had 
pirated their names just paid Globecomm to give them their names back 
quietly without any publicity.  How much money has Globecomm earned 
from that practice?  Did that money help them to apply to become a 
registrar for the new gTLD's?

Sincerely,
Chris Post

cp15@cornell.edu
Department of Soil, Crop, and Atmospheric Sciences
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853