Cybersquatting Vs Real Estate Development

["Tony Mackay" <tmackay@btinternet.com>]

Dear Sirs,

 

Whilst I do agree that intentional abuse of an existing trademark should be stopped, I fail to see how there is a difference between somebody buying a plot of land that they hope may be developed for a profit and the registering of cyber real-estate for the same purposes.  

 

It would seem that those that were slow to see the potential of the internet are now trying to use spurious legal claims to steal back the water front properties from those that first spotted the potential.  The law should protect both the legal owner to the trademark as well and equally as the entrepreneur that first spotted the cyber opportunities - thus any trade mark dispute should be wholly limited to the actual trademarked name - no more and no less.

 

Furthermore, it is somewhat ironic that the big corporates spend billions of dollars each year emblazoning their 'brands' on everything that we own, yet they want to stop individuals registering domain names that do no more than reinforce the branding effort of the corporates.  

 

Finally, take the emotion out of the exercise, even the playing field, and let everybody get on with their lives.   The internet is a global phenomenon and the US based lawmakers should recognise global rights and stop the suggestion that an application being made in a US state has global jurisdiction.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Tony Mackay

London, UK