At 12:09 PM 4/5/00 +0800, Dr. Peter McClean Millar wrote:
>Here's a question for someone who knows much more about the "system" than
I do.
>
One of the reasons you are confused is that you, and perhaps others,
are basing your assumptions on the "erroneous" claims of some nitwit
who posted legal nonsense to this list. (unfortunately misinformation,
disinformation, myth and other superstitions find their way into this
list) For a cursory overview of US trademark law as it relates to
domain names see below:
Once you register a domain name that does not infringe on someone else's
existing trademark or servicemark, whether filed or common law, then
you do "own" it in that you can control, use, rent, transfer, sell, etc.
it as any other asset.
Now if you stop paying for it and it gets turned off, it can go back into
the domain name pool, however if you established any interstate commerce
using that domain name as a mark, then you would have priority trademark
rights. If you bothered to file/register said trademark/servicemark than
those rights would be even more secure.
Now if someone else were to pick this name up after you stopped paying, you
would have legal recourse under US trademark law, and ICANN, to stop/block
that
person from using/infringing on your prior established mark. It might even
be possible to enjoin NSI from allowing anyone else to register your
established mark, whether or not you chose to currently have it as active
in the Root name servers.
Cheers,
Eric Ross
FastNames.com
>Why can we not buy domain names outright? How come NSI owns them and just
>effectively leases them to us. I "own" millar.org as long as I keep paying
>for it, but if I forget then someone else can take it. Why can I not buy it
>completely and pay a fee to them or someone else to administer it? In that
>way if I forgot to pay the admin charge the name would be "unusable" but I
>would still own it. Who made these guys God? They are based in the US and
>dictate to everyone worldwide. Why does someone in say the UK have to
>accept this situation? How can NSI own names? OK I can see that counties
>have control of domain extensions eg to, nu, co.uk etc etc but com, net and
>org are universal not just USA.
>
>Maybe there is a simple answer to this but I guess I missed it.
>
>Regards
>
>Pete
>
>
> >Except that the domain registrant is just that - a "registrant" not an
> >owner. The NSI Registry is simply leasing the domain name to the end
> >user for the specified period of time, never giving up ownership. That
> >is why you have to keep repaying!
> >--Josh Levine
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Tue Oct 19 2004 - 23:35:28 EDT