Please ICANN no more new tld's until you can sort out existing problems with the
existing tld's.I read these posts from the corps like AT&T and it frightens me
to think that these people are really serious about these issues, all most are trying
to do is care about their own well being and dodge the real issues.
Please get
this trademark situation under control before you do anything further!
It is my
opinion that anyone that has been required to turn over a domain name to the label
of "Cybersquatter" has been short changed and ripped off by WIPO or any other process
that determined the name be surrendered. These names were registered on a first come
first served basis!
No order of trademark law even comes close to domain names,
the internet has been available to trademark holders for over 5 years and now they
want justice on names (most registered a year ago or less). Where have their business
consultants been all this time?
I think it is great that some people with insight
registered these names with the intent to profit later. Most did it because they
were law abiding business people who could see the benefit, i say law abiding because
up until a few months ago when these new laws were made up as they went along, nobody
was breaking any laws by registering a domain name.
Now, that flimsy rules have
been inacted and reverse decisions, the people with the deepest pockets win.
The
big corps want new tld's because they know they will be entitled to them first, I
don't want them because I see me coming in last on this issue. But I already have
my .com's so why should I care? .com's will alway rule the internet as we know it
today!
I think you roll out more tld's and you will see that it did nothing but
benefit the registration system until you get these domain hungry corporations in
their places about cybersquatting.
Get the trademark issue written in stone first,
protect the original first come first served domain holder, then make up all the
new tld's you want, hundreds or thousands who cares.
First and foremost, protect
the registrant from these money grubbing corporations, the only reason most of them
have awakened on this issue is because they found out that a domain can be worth
more than their whole operation, otherwise they really wouldn't care. They know as
well as all of us that when you enter a site you know where you are by the content,
not by the name that brought you there.
Please don't get me wrong, I think that
trademark holders have rights also, but they are not entitled to own the internet.
ford.com takes you to Ford Motor Company but they are not entitled to own that name
under trademark law and they should have to pay the registrant for that name if they
can afford to..period.
In the case of juliaroberts.com, the original registrant
was operating a site with that name pertaining to the famous actress without her
consent, if he was merely speculating and holding the domain in the event that someone
with that name may want it someday, I think that this is OK. But he was using her
name and refering to her in his site content, if he was using aboutjuliaroberts.com
as a domain he should be entitled to do so, not juliaroberts.com though.
If there
is another Julia Roberts out there, I urge you to litigate, you have just as much
right to that name as the actress!
I attend many automotive conventions around
the US every year, the actor by the name of Dick VanPatten signs autographs for one
of the vendors of these shows, as I was trying to sell him a website I gave him some
personal advise that at the time was worth much more than he could think of:
I
said: you should register your name as a domain name to protect your career and your
family members as they are all in the business as well..he looked at me like I was
speaking chinese to him..I told him I would register these name for him for FREE.
He
never contacted me and for a long time I checked to see if he ever took my advise,
for a long time after he did not.
I think that this is the case with the big corps
also, they were told long ago and did nothing, now they want it all!
ICANN get
your trademark issues in place before you do anything, and I urge you to protect
the original registrant when some money grubbing entity comes around saying they
have rights..
TRADEMARK LAW IS NOT DOMAIN NAME LAW AND NEVER WILL BE under original
registration guidelines and trademark law!
Thank you