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From: "John Berryhill, Ph.D., J.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: Legal question about domain name.
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 03:46:30 -0500
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Mark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Just a quesiton regarding ownership rights of a domain name. I know
> nothing at all about domain name law (or any law)
> so I'm sorry if this is basic stuff.
Don't sweat it. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) doesn't seem to know very much about law either, so you are in good,
or bad, company as the case may be.
Actually, the primary policy for settling the majority of domain name and
trademark disputes is pretty much out to lunch for the next month, so this
is a good time to be on the receiving end of nastygrams from trademark
owners.
> So I guess
> my question is, do I need to worry about this?
That's more along the lines of a question you might ask a therapist instead
of an attorney. From the tone of your message, I'm going to guess that you
are relatively young. If that's the case, then, no, you probably shouldn't
worry. Life is short, enjoy it. There will be plenty of other things to
worry about in the future.
> Again sorry is this is a naive question but don't have an attorney to
> ask and I couldn't afford to ask if I had one.
You didn't mention with which registrar you registered the domain name. If
you happen to have registered with Network Solutions, they have
inadvertently declared a month of jubilee for domain name owners since their
new dispute policy doesn't begin until January, and their old dispute policy
has a built-in 30-day waiting period. The bottom line is that they've got
no policy this month.
The other bottom line is that if you can't afford to ask an attorney, then
you won't be able to afford one to defend you if need be. It also means
that you aren't worth suing for anything other than control of the domain
name. And if that's all they want, then it will always be an economically
rational choice for them to pay you anything up to one penny less than it
will cost them to sue you.
If you _could_ afford an attorney, then you would want that attorney to
consider whether they could successfully sue you for infringement of any
rights that they may have. If there is no underlying cause of action for
trademark infringement (whether it is a federally registered trademark or a
trademark cognizable at common law), unfair competition, tortious
interference, libel, or whatever, then the developing case law indicates
that merely having your domain name which is similar to their trade name,
without any ill-motivation on your part, does not entitle them to take it
away from you.
Take a look, for example, at vw.net. That domain name is owned by a company
called Virtual Works, which has nothing to do with funny-looking little
fascist automobiles. You wouldn't get the impression from looking at their
website that they have anything to do with automobiles, but Volkswagen's
lawyers are probably not as perceptive as normal people are.
Now, that's not to say that they won't try, perhaps successfully, to take it
away from you. What people are entitled to get is not always the same as
what they get.
Two general principles you might want to keep in mind are (i) answers to
specific legal questions can depend on facts and circumstances that are more
detailed than the information in your post and (ii) discussing your specific
legal situation in public is a generally inadvisable policy.
If you'd like to do some background reading on how these kinds of disputes
can play out, I'd suggest taking a look at:
http://www.domainhandbook.com/dd.html
