On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, Mike Batchelor wrote:
I like the idea of creating a new ".tm" TLD (or something less likely to conflict with a CCTLD), and requiring anybody who wants trademark protection to register there; everything else is a free-for-all, as it pretty much is now. Let them have their little trademark disputes over there, and let less litigious heads rule in the other TLDs.
How do you propose to enforce this? What authority will be able to intercede in a trademark lawsuit involving a domain outside .tm, and put a stop to it?
The namespace is the namespace, and infringment is infringment, whereever it occurs. If infringment occurs, the damaged party should not be prevented from seeking relief.
I agree. Such a policy would only serve to legitimize trademark infringement. Also, since multiple entities can, and often do, have identical trademarks in different business classes, there will still be contention for even such .tm domains. If one considers the structure of name useage, from local assumed names to registered trademarks by international organizations, the only logical conclusion is to move everything to the regional domain structure and totally do away with .com .net .org .edu and even .gov! It would seem to be the only structure compatible with all scales of naming requirements and should make domain related trademark issues a bit cleaner. Chuck