Aloha

found this could be pretty good news to set presedence in future cases, or could go against some.


Trademark Holders Don't Automatically Win Similar Domain Names, Federal Judge Rules

<law.com article link> (http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZREUR61RC&live=true&cst=1&pc=3&pa=0&s=News&ExpIgnore=true&showsummary=0)

Trademark Holders Don't Automatically Win Similar Domain Names, Federal Judge Rules Hmm... personally I don't think I've ever known anyone knowledgeable about such things to have said that the a trademark would "automatically" carry rights to a domain name that includes it. And certainly nothing in ICANN's policy says directly that it would.

And reading the article, it seems that the decision isn't really a change in direction for the courts. The ruling even notes that the decision is in line with precedent, saying for example "courts have rejected [the plaintiff's] theory, noting that trademark law requires reasonableness on the part of consumers."

It seems like it's not much of a surprise in the world of trademark law, but novel in that it applies specifically to a domain name. So that's interesting. Good catch, thanks for the link.

I just want to stick on a quick addendum, because we had that long thread about yahoo-related names. In each of the cases I looked at where arbitrators had ruled on those disputes, the similarity of the disputed name to Yahoo! Inc.'s trademark was mentioned as one of the arguments supporting their right to the name, but in every case they made other compelling arguments as well. So while a trademark holder may not have "automatic" rights to a name, that doesn't mean that they necessarily do not have those rights. Trademark is just one factor.

Aloha
very true JayC
guess I am just happy that some small people with legite claims are starting to win more
such as the famous Nissan vs Nissan motors case
you still can not knowingly trick a user and not have rights
but seems that there are so many big companies try to lay claim such as some of the ebay claims
if I live on sunshinebay I should have the right to sunshinebay.com without ebay climibing on me the more court cases that side with real people the better ;)

just restating some facts that Jay brought up to make more clear for others on my thoughts ;)

I get tired of big companies trying to once again tilt the field in the internet world the internet which was hoped to help let small companies compete with big companies must be brought back to that balance ;)

man I hope I do not fall off this box I could break my neck form this height
hehehehhehehehe

later ;)
thanks for the extra input Jay ;)