Re: Open letter to Kelsey Grammer: the Internet is not a trademark-free zone

Responding to Rich Wiggins re: the use of Kelsey Grammer's name as a domain name, I believe that NSI, not Internic, would be the entity that would have to reassign the name, and under their dispute resolution procedure (to which registrants must contractually adhere to obtain a domain name) it is essential that the party disputing a prior registration have a registered trademark, registered by some national authority (which is why in the Roadrunner case one of the parties went off to Morocco, where they apparently issue registrations very fast, to obtain a registration and therefore obtain standing to invoke the dispute procedure). But there may be another avenue, suggested by the Panavision v. Toeppen case, for direct action against the domain name
"hijackers". This of course involves cost too, probably more than the
"hijackers" would want for ransom.

Kerry L. Konrad
<k_konrad[_at_]stblaw.com> Received on Fri Nov 13 1998 - 16:02:34 GMT