Tunisian trademarks (Was: Open letter to Kelsey Grammer)

On Sat, 14 Nov 1998, Thomas Workman <tworkman[_at_]erols.com> wrote:
>
> Kelsey has a remedy in federal court. He cannot get a trademark on
> his own name, IMO, under the doctrine that the mark would be primarilly
> a surname, and thus not registrable. The hijacker might be able to
> convince Internic, or NSI, to let them keep the domain name, with a
> foreign trademark (they could not get a US trademark registered without
> Mr. Grammer's permission). I believe that it is in Morocco where you
> can fill out a form, pay money, and instantly get a trademark, with
> effectively no examination other than to insure that exact mark is not
> already taken.

It's Tunisia, not Morocco, but you've got the right idea. My law firm was the one that identified this approach and was the first to use it, in the Roadrunner.com case.

> There is a line of cases, beginning with the "Here's Johnny" case
> (for a toilet, opposed by Johnny Carson) that addresses the rights
> of people to the use of their own name, and which punishes those
> who cash in. IMO, the hijackers have done exactly that... and an
> attorney in IP should be able to help Kelsey get his domain name,
> or make it intollerably painful for the hijhackers if they keep it.

Yes, that is correct.

Carl Oppedahl
<carl[_at_]oppedahl.com> Received on Wed Nov 18 1998 - 20:10:27 GMT