Following on from what Meliza says, the other limitation when trying to
justify a trade mark as giving exclusive rights to a corresponding domain
name is that lots of different people can have an identical word (or words)
registered as a trade mark - if they are for 'non-competing' goods or
services.  For example, PENFOLDS for wine, motor vehicles, and office
supplies (and possibly even other products) all co-exist in terms of use as
a trade mark, but only one would be able to get penfolds.com.au. 

To reiterate one of  Meliza's other points, that so many people don't  seem
to be aware of, registration of a business name or company name gives you NO
RIGHT WHATSOEVER to stop someone else using that name, even for competing
goods.  Nor does it give you any protection from someone who claims that
your use of that name infringes a trade mark they may have registered. 

Cheers 

James Omond


-----Original Message-----
From: Meliza Smith [mailto:melizasmith§hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 7 November 2001 13:44
To: dns§auda.org.au
Subject: [DNS] Domain Names and Trade Marks


The following comes from a 'trade mark' angle ... 

In answer to your question, Malcolm, any and all of them, provided they can
prove that their trade mark registration has been infringed by the domain
name, and that the domain name has been used as a trade mark.

>> snip

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