Hi Merlin,I'm not saying I don't think that companies that "create" new TLDs shouldn't
be able to claim ownership on them, I am just asking how ADNS plans to make their
case in light of the fact that a California federal court ruled that a TLD can not
be trademarked or service marked. IOD's lawsuit against CORE was based on IOD's claim
that .web represented a service mark owned by their company, and the court ruled
that it didn't.
On the ADNS website (http://www.adns.net/about_alternative_domains.html),
it is stated:
"One of the issues that is hotly debated wether or not TLDs can be
owned by any person or organization. In the U.S. and many other nations, the legal
answer is YES. In the U.S. TLDs can be considered Service Marks. It is for this reason
that ADNS is owner of the TLDs EARTH, USA and Z. We were first to use them in business
and commerce and under the law, this means that they belong to us. There are several
other companies that entered the TLD business in 1995/1996, including MCSNet (.BIZ,
.CORP) and IODesign (.WEB) with similar valid claims."
If this is the basis for
their claim, it would seem that it is invalid because the court just ruled that a
TLD cannot be a service mark.
I don't necessarily agree with the ruling, but it
would seem that it makes the ADNS claims invalid.
Jeff