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

On Thu, 12 Nov 98, Rich Wiggins <wiggins[_at_]msuvm3.cl.msu.edu> wrote:
>
> Last night, Kelsey Grammer was on the Tonight Show, and he told
> Jay Leno that he'd started a Web site, kelseylive.com.
>
> Jay, apparently being an astute Internaut, suggested that Kelsey
> ought to have set it up as kelseygrammer.com.
>
> Kelsey replied that someone had already registered his name
> as a .com address, and that that someone wanted money for
> Kelsey to buy his own name back, and that he was unwilling to
> pay the amount wanted, so he was going to go with kelseylive.
>
> I checked this morning, and sure enough, kelseygrammer.com
> is registered to a group called "Friend to Friend Foundation."
> They proclaim:
>
> This particular site on the World Wide Web has been
> registered on behalf of the specific individual
> referred to by the domain name. It is reserved for
> their exclusive use.
>
> They dress it up as if they're benevolent friends, but if
> Kelsey's got the story right, they're just domain speculators.
>
> I've never been fond of the Internic's ready willingness to
> bow to big corporations who hold trademarks -- I think
> the roadrunner.com case was a travesty -- but it's hard to
> imagine how domain speculators in Kansas could own Kelsey's
> name. Shouldn't he just apply to the Internic for reassignment
> to him based on his trade name? Does he need to register a
> trademark in order to prevail?

     Not only does Kelsey need a registered trademark, but he must satisfy Internic that he acquired that registration prior to the date his friendly cybersquatters registered the domain name. Failing that, his only remedy is to go to court. Sound fair? Workable? You're not alone. A variety of "virtual" solutions to domain name disputes have been proposed, but to my knowledge, none has been widely accepted. Does anyone else have any additional information on this point?

Greg Ikonen
<gikonen[_at_]venlaw.com> Received on Fri Nov 13 1998 - 16:22:30 GMT