RE: Internet domain name controversies

On 10/10/96, Karl Auerbach wrote:
>
>> which utilizes the term "A3", although it's unlclear if the term is
>> being used as a trademark or to identify an actual corporation.
>
> In this domain name issue we have to stop thinking solely in terms of
> registered trademark of corporation names.
>
> There are lots of small, non-incorporated business (often these are
> individuals) out there in the US and elsewhere. And in this
> electronic age, many of these small enterprises have worldwide
> customer bases and so can not be clearly confined to any geographic
> domain name hierarchy.

Yes, of course that is correct. There are many small businesses (some unincorporated as you say, and others that are incorporated) with worldwide customer bases. My law firm is such a business. Yet if NSI is asked by some large business that happens to have a trademark registration, even though I don't infringe it, to cut off my firm's domain name, NSI will do it. A legitimate court would not cut it off, since I am not an infringer. But NSI will cut it off, because NSI exalts registered trademarks to an unduly high significance.

Of course one wonders why NSI does this, why NSI offers such blatant favoritism to large corporations with lots of trademark registrations. Here they are, making plans to go public with an IPO, and they carry on with a terrible trademark policy that gets them sued again and again by innocent domain name owners. An NSI spokesman was quoted the other day saying that about half of NSI's revenue is *not* from domain name registration fees, but is from intranet design services that NSI offers to private clients. I expect there is a substantial overlap between the set of its private clients and the set of registered trademark owners.

Carl Oppedahl
<carl[_at_]oppedahl.com> Received on Fri Oct 11 1996 - 14:45:40 GMT