Re: [gtld-council] NCUC proposals to amend gnso recommendations on new gtld policy
Hi Mike, Well US courts have consistently disagreed with your view and ruled that there are numerous lawful uses of a trademark in a domain name by someone other than a trademark holder. Trademark law has never granted a monopoly on language. It only regulates specific uses of words or symbols, and only commercial uses. Non-commercial expression is not regulated by trademark rules under the law. One of the most cited US legal precedents to examine the boundary of free expression rights and trademark rights is Taubman v. Webfeats 319 F.3d 770 (6th Circuit 2003), an early "cyber-gripe case". The court explained, "we will first explain the interrelation between the First Amendment and the Lanham Act. ... The Lanham Act is constitutional because it only regulates commercial speech, which is entitled to reduced protections under the First Amendment." In Taubman the appellate court held that many expressions of a mark were not a 'trademark use' and not likely to cause confusion and therefore "outside the jurisdiction of the Lanham Act and necessarily protected by the First Amendment." The 6th Circuit spoke directly to our issue, "The rooftops of our past have evolved into the Internet domain names of our present. We find that the domain name is a type of public expression, no different in scope than a billboard or a pulpit, and [defendant] has a First Amendment right to express his opinion about [plaintiff], as long as his speech is not commercially misleading, the Lanham Act cannot be summoned to prevent it." Taubman explicitly held there First Amendment protection to use a trademark in a domain name to criticize a business. See: http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=03a0043p.06 Another US circuit, the 9th, has also set similar precedent in Bosley Med. Inst. v. Kremer, 403 F.3d 672 (9th Cir. 2005) over a non-commercial gripe-site using a trademark in its domain name. Again the court agreed that the non-commercial expression of opinion was not a "trademark use" subject to regulation by the mark holder. "[Defendant] is not [plaintiff's] competitor; he is their critic. His use of [plaintiff's] mark is not in connection with a sale of goods or service - it is in connection with the expression of his opinion about [plaintiff's] goods and services. [Plaintiff] cannot use the Lanham Act either as a shield from ... criticism, or as a sword to shut [defendant] up." See: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/3B0C93358B88F28D88256FD90056994B/$file/0455962.pdf?openelement The US 2nd Circuit has also provided strong protection for noncommercial speech and recognized that words and phrases are used in many different ways in a digital environment, to serve differing goals, and that not all of these uses are controlled by trademark law. In 1-800 Contacts v. WhenU.com 414 F3d 400 (2d Cir. 2005), the 2nd Circuit ruled that the vast majority of such uses were outside the scope of trademark law and only those specific uses visually associated with the sale of goods/services could be regulated by trademark. See: www.eff.org/legal/cases/1800*contacts*_v_whenu/decision.pdf So the US law is clear in permitting numerous non-commercial uses of a trademark in a domain name, to discuss, criticize, compare, provide general information about a company or product. Freedom of expression is a legally recognized value that trademark rights do not supersede. The current gnso draft recommendations diverge significantly from the law on this point. Robin Mike Rodenbaugh wrote: I disagree with the NCUC's suggested change to Reco #3. There are ample
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