From: David.Goldstein§aba.gov.au
       Australian Broadcasting Authority

To: maryjane§intiaa.asn.au
Priority: normal
Conversion: Allowed
Conversion-With-Loss: Allowed
Alternate-Recipient: Prohibited
Content-Identifier: FW: US Legal dec

Mary-Jane

Is this of interest to you or some of your intiaa colleagues who deal
with domain names?

Cheers
David

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From: SMTP:owner-apple§apnic.net/
To: SMTP:apple§apnic.net/
Subject: US Legal decision on domain names
Date: Tuesday, 22 July 1997 9:09AM

>
>         The Court begins with the observation that "unlike a
>         patent or copyright, a trademark does not confer on
>         its owner any rights in gross or at large." MDT Corp.
>         v. New York Stock Exchange, Inc., 858 F. Supp. 1028,
>         1032 (C.D. Cal. 1994) (citing Traeger v. Gordon-Allen,
>         Ltd., 71 F.2d 786, 768 (9th Cir. 1934)); see also
>         Anheuser-Busch, Inc. v. Balducci Publications, 28
>         F.3d 769, 777 (8th Cir. 1994) (noting that "unlike
>         copyright and patent owners, trademark owners have
>         no rights in gross"). Therefore, the law does not
>         per se prohibit the use of trademarks or service marks
>         as domain names. Rather, the law prohibits only uses
>         that infringe or dilute a trademark or service mark
>         owner's mark. Moreover, innocent third party users of
>         a trademark or service mark have no duty to police the
>         mark for the benefit of the mark's owner. MDT, 858 F.
>         Supp. at 1034. Consequently, the mere fact that a person
>         registered a SKUNK WORKS or a variation thereof as a
>         domain name does not mean that the person infringed or
>         diluted Lockheed's mark. (Lockheed Martin Corp. v.
>         NSI, 96-cv-7438, C.D. Cal., March 19, 1997.)

 -----------------------------------------------------
David Goldstein
Project Officer, On-line Services
Australian Broadcasting Authority

e-mail:      david.goldstein§aba.gov.au
URL:         http://www.dca.gov.au/aba/hpcov.htm
phone:     +61 2 9334 7938     fax:     +61 2 9334 7799
post:         PO Box Q500
                 QVB  SYDNEY  NSW  1230,  AUSTRALIA
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