Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Confidential communication
 
Thanks, Nick.

With all due respect, it is unrealistic to expect that you can develop rules
for the domain name space which ignore existing legal rights in trade marks.

One might have thought there was a world of difference between blah.com
based in the USA trying on a trade mark infringement claim against
blah.com.au based and operating solely in Australia to the situation in the
Salon article which is about someone in the USA using fandom.tv allegedly in
breach of US trade mark rights.

I am certainly not saying that blah.com versus blah.com.au does not happen:
it does.  But see what happened to Prince Sports Inc. when it took on Prince
Computers: (1997) 37 IPR 225.

Also, WIPO is developing a treaty to lay down some ground rules about these
types of disputes:
http://www.wipo.int/news/en/index.html?wipo_content_frame=/news/en/2000/inde
x.htm.

Kind regards

Warwick A Rothnie
Partner
Mallesons Stephen Jaques Melbourne
Direct line (61 3) 9643 4254
Fax (61 3) 9643 5999


-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Smith [mailto:NSMITH§nla.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 13 December 2000 4:35:PM
To: 'dns§auda.org.au'
Subject: [DNS] Fandom.com vs Fandom.tv



Very interesting article in Salon about a domain name dispute:

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/12/13/fandom/index.html?VERSION=9

Ultimately this is what will happen if you tie domain names to trade marks:
larger and more aggressive sites will eventually seek to control all
versions of 'their' name across all domain name spaces.

I once saw a cease-and-desist letter from an American site, www.blah.com to
an Australian site www.blah.com.au, claiming that the Australian site
infringed the American trade mark. Because, of course, blah.com.au is just
as accessible to Americans as .blah.com is... 

Nick
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Nick Smith
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Copyright Advisor  ::  Australian Libraries Copyright Committee
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Email: nsmith§nla.gov.au   \\   Web: www.digital.org.au
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