Re: [wg-c] Retraction of previous proposal

["Mark C. Langston" <skritch@home.com>]

On 30 July 1999, "Martin B. Schwimmer" <martys@interport.net> wrote:

>>
>>Yes, Mark you are exactly correct. The issue is not whether use results,
>but the nature and effect of the use. Trademarks do not constitute
>ownership of character strings. There are many ways in which trademarked
>character strings can be used legally by someone other than the trademark
>owner. There are also identical strings that are trademarked by many
>different owners. Whether infringement is involved depends entirely on what
>you said: how the name is being used over time.
>
>
>Nevertheless the mere registration of a DN could potentially be actionable.


...it's just that the holder of the famous mark doesn't want to spend
the money to actionize the registration.

(I just used "actionize" in a sentence.  I've always wondered how 
management did that... ;)

>
>The idea that one must obtain a judicial order just to obtain contact
>information from a DN registration is a bit impractical.  Perhaps a

I don't think that's being argued.  The mark holder can use whois as
well as the next person.  If the mark holder can't figure out how
to read a POC handle (which has to be valid to a certain extent, for
billing purposes), whose problem is that?

If someone provided false information for the handle, then how were
they billed?  If they weren't billed, then the domain will revert to
being available.  If there's a loophole through which the person who
registered the domain is allowed to provide false billing information,
never pay for the domain, and yet continue to use the domain, then
something's wrong with the registrar's processes.  That does not imply
there's any problem with the TLD the registrar's selling, or with the
procedures put in place for accessing the registry database.

>consumer should have to obtain a judicial order to obtain the identity of a
>merchant before he or she could complain that they have been defrauded by a
>web site.
>

If the consumer's been defrauded by a website, chances are any information
the consumer can find will be intentionally falsified, and yes, the
consumer *will* have to obtain a judicial order to obtain the true
identity of the merchant.

-- 
Mark C. Langston	     			Let your voice be heard:
mark@bitshift.org				     http://www.idno.org
Systems Admin					    http://www.icann.org
San Jose, CA					     http://www.dnso.org