Re: ICANN to allow commercial gTLDs

[Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Owen DeLong" <owen () delong com>

> MacDonald's would likely get title to .macdonalds under the new rules,
> right?
>
> Well... Which MacDonald's?
>
> 1. The fast food chain
> 2. O.C. MacDonald's Plumbing Supply
> 3. MacDonald and Sons Paving Systems
> 4. MacDonald and Madison Supply Company
> 5. etc.
>
> All of them have legitimate non-conflicting trademarks on the name MacDonald's
> (or at least could, I admit I made some of them up). I said when this mess
> first started that mapping trademarks to DNS would only lead to dysfunction.
> It did. Now the dysfunction is becoming all-encompassing. It will be 
> interesting to watch the worlds IP lawyers (IP as in Intellectual Property,
> not Internet Protocol)
> eat their young over these issues for the next several decades.

Indeed.

It's actually "McDonalds", of course, and the US trademark law system has
a provision for "famous" marks.  I don't recall what the rules are, but 
once they've decide your mark is "famous", then it no longer competes only
in its own line-of-business category; *no one* can register a new mark in 
any category using your word.

Coca-Cola, Sony, and I think Kodak, are the canonical examples of a
famous mark.

  http://www.quizlaw.com/trademarks/what_is_a_famous_trademark.php

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra () baylink com
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