Re: WPOR registers WTHT domain name

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Fri, 28 Aug 1998 01:11:27 -0400 (EDT), hmglaz@webtv.net (H Glazer) said:

> register wgam.com (still available) or wcis.com (currently in Japanese
> hands)? Would broadcasters holding those call letters have the legal
> right to force those entities to hand over their domain names 

No.  Most trademark rights are restricted to a particular domain of
applicability -- Acme Paint and Acme Dry Cleaners do not conflict,
even though they both might use the mark ``Acme'', because they
operate in distinct industries which are unlikely to be confused.

However, NSI's actual terms and conditions did not, last I saw, make
any provision for resolving conflicting, valid trademark claims, other
than priority (since there is only one .COM, but WIPO recognizes
something like 44 different industrial sectors).  It's mostly left to
the individual claimants to duke it out.  That's one of the reasons
why there's so much pressure to create additional global top-level
domains.

However, two-letter TLDs are reserved for ISO 3166 country codes.  .TV
is Tuvalu, .AM is Armenia, and .FM is the Federated States of
Micronesia.  So far, I have not heard of any of those countries
looking to ``do a Tonga'' as it were (or Niue, for that matter).

- -GAWollman

- --
Garrett A. Wollman   | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | O Siem / The fires of freedom 
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA|                     - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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