[thelist] copyright help

[Viveka Weiley]

At 8:59 am +0100 28/4/02, Jake Robinson wrote:
[snip]
>I then recieved another email
>from him this morning which is as follows:
>"Hi Jake,
>    Thanks for your quick reply.  We have all the necessary copyrights and
>trademarks in place.  I'll be submitting the matter to our attorneys on
>Monday so they can forward you any information you'd like to see.  They'll
>be handling the issue from here on out.  You can probably expect to hear
>from them early next week.

Don't be intimidated by his references to lawyers.

Domain name disputes very rarely go to court, they go to arbitration.
If he tried to take you to court on this without going to arbitration
first, the court would deny his application for a hearing, and tell
him to go to arbitration.

The arbiter in this case is the World Intellectual Property
Organisation, or WIPO.

There is an established procedure for resolving domain disputes. It's
called the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution policy. All
registrars sign up to it, and the rules are straightforward.

Here's the relevant URL:
http://arbiter.wipo.int/center/faq/domains.html

Read the section on domain name disputes carefully. You are in the right.

You registered the name in good faith, without any intent to harm
this guy, since you'd never heard of him. No copyright or trademark
can take it away from you in this situation.

The only situation in which he could take the name away is if he had
something stronger than a registered trademark - there is special
protection for "Famous Names". This means something that is so well
known all around the world, that if you were to use it, everyone
would assume you had an association.

Different people can own the same trademark.

I can own DigitalFrog (r), registered as a manufacturer of amphibious
USB devices. You can own DigitalFrog (r), registered as a provider of
web design services. No conflict exists in law.

We can both own DigitalFrog (r), both trading as web design
companies, you in the UK and me in Australia. Unless you are famous
in Australia, or you were trading in Australia before me, there's
still no conflict.

However, if I start up the Coca-Cola engine parts manufacturing
company in Azerbaijan, then Coca-Cola can take me to WIPO and make me
change my name, even if they don't make engine parts and the don't
trade in Azerbaijan. This is because they're Coca-Cola, and the
arbitrator has heard of them. Even then, as long as I comply with the
ruling I'll be OK.

I Am Not A Lawyer, but law is just tradition and logic, really.

Regards,

V.
--
Viveka Weiley, Karmanaut.
{ http://www.karmanaut.com | http://www.planet-earth.org
    http://www.MacWeb3D.org | http://sydney.siggraph.org.au }
Hypermedia, virtual worlds, human interface, truth, beauty.