>These three cases you cite are not on point because they weren't disputes
>between two REGISTERED trademark owners. I'm asking if trademark owners
>feel they have priority rights to domain names in cyberspace over common
>law marks and other legitimate users, why they don't apply the seniority
>rights dictum in cyberspace, too? And why two owners of identical marks
>(say "Juno") don't have a slugfest over which rights should prevail, say,
>between the earliest one to challenge a domain name registrant (thus
>claiming rights to the domain name) and the one who possesses the earliest
>trademark issue date.
The reason why these are so rare is simple. The VAST majority of trademark
holders have no Internet presence. Many of them do not even know how to
obtain an Internet presence. Despite the claims of INTA to "speak for all
domain name holders" the truth is that the percentage of domain name
holders in their ranks is very small. As more businesses with trademarks
"wake up" to the Internet's existance, these disputes may become more
prevalent, as will the number of users of domain names who are challenged
despite their longevity, by trademark holders.
>
>I'm just pointing out the inconsistencies in this botched approach to
>conflicts over names. This is just another reason that I believe NSI's
>trademark registration bias is fundamentally flawed and should be scrapped.
Absolutely. Unfortunately, its proposed replacement, the WIPO policy is
worse. See Professor Fromkin's analysis.
