On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Ernie Rubi <ernesto@cs.fiu.edu> wrote:
http://ciara.fiu.edu/publications/Rubi%20-%20Property%20Rights%20in%20IP%20N... Even assuming Kremen was decided as ARIN says; United States District Courts can and do disagree.
Hi Ernie, The case you refer to was a dispute about a trademark which the a particular domain name infringed. The court's theory was that the property right in the trademark (well documented in law) covered the domain name too (fresh precedent). So while a court could disagree about IP addresses, it's not really accurate to say that one has. As you acknowledge in your paper, no such extension of existing intellectual property law has been proposed to cover any particular formulation of integers, including IP addresses. At least within the US, article I section 8 clause 8 would seem to preclude the courts from recognizing intellectual property outside the rationally extensible bounds of what the congress has defined. So it's not really clear under what theory of property law a court would choose to compel ARIN to transfer a legacy registration while retaining legacy status. Indeed, you point out that in a similar situation - telephone numbers - the courts have steadfastly refused to recognize a property interest. Finally, in the case you refer to, the result was a change in party in an explicit signed contract. No such document has been executed between ARIN and the legacy registrants or between those registrants and ARIN's predecessors. The absence of any such legal instrument sets a high bar indeed for anyone attempting to compel ARIN to change a registration outside the course of ARIN's normal policy-defined process. It can't even be tortious interference as the parties knew or should have known ARIN's stance before they began talking. Now, if congress tomorrow passes a bill that says IP addresses are a new form of intellectual property then they're property henceforward and the legal regime underpinning ARIN falls apart. But that hasn't happened yet. It hasn't even been proposed. On a technical note, your URLs will work more reliably if you don't put spaces in the file names. Although Google Gmail is probably the party at fault, your URL got translated to "+"'s instead of spaces. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004