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U.S. Cybersquatting Law Goes Global

Posted by timothy on from the of-the-people-by-the-people dept.

typecast writes: "Better bone up on Bulgarian trademark law before you register your next domain name. A U.S. federal court has ruled that laws protecting trademarks in foreign countries apply under the American Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999. (Note to the U.S. registrants of Quartz.com: watch out!)"

8 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Not as evil as the article states. by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sorry, but if you register some domains and then hope to extort thousands out of it, you deserve to have it taken from you. I know that the law can and will be twisted by lawyers (remember all lawyers are evil scumbags, they will screw you for their own gain at every chance they get.. no, I'm not biased). The implications of this are designed for good intentions... What if a US moron was trying to extort cash out of a poor company in the country that was formerly known as the USSR for his domain name? Granted anyone with 1/3'd of a brain can come up with a workable replacement..

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Not as evil as the article states. by mshiltonj · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sorry, but if you register some domains and then hope to extort thousands out of it, you deserve to have it taken from you.

      Translation: You can be a company afraid of the Internet and be slow to adjust to market market pressures. When you finally open your eyes and see that others have taken advantage of your lethargy in hopes of monetary gain, you need not fret -- just taken them to court.

      After all, we now know that successful corporations are not allowed to fail. In times of trouble, entire industries will recieve multi-billion dollar bailouts. Laws and courts will favor successful companes (like anti-cybersquatting laws) and in the rare cases that a corporation does fail, Congress will hold dozens of hearings to find out why and make sure that it doesn't happen again.

      Existing corporations and existing power-structures are not allow to fail or be challenged.

      --
      Software Wars
  2. Foreign Law coming to US by aliebrah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Shouldn't the correct title of the article be something like "Spanish Law coming to US?". This is most definitely not a case of US law going overseas.

    Remember, it might be a shock to some people but to whole world does not revolve around the USA.

  3. Had to expect this... by crc32 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After all, the US is a member of WIPO, and as such, is somewhat required to engage in these IP-law "harmonization" practices. Other countries will also be doing the same thing for our laws (extrateritorial DMCA jurisdiction... what has the world come to!).

    --
    "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -- Carl Sagan, Cosmos
  4. US Verses the World by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Wonder of Wonders. People outside the US have rights.

    God bless, what will happen next?

    Understand, this is a novel thought for some USians

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  5. Does the law guide or replace? by CaseStudy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did the judge just look to Spanish law to help make his point, or did he specifically say that Spain had jurisdiction over the case?

    If the former, so what? Judges are guided by all sorts of things in their opinions. It's only in the application of the laws of the judge's jurisdiction that stare decisis applies.

    If the latter, why? The precedential effect will be in the choice of law, and why Spanish law was chosen over the ACPA is vitally important. (I get the impression that Spanish law was used merely to determine whether "Barcelona" was protectable by the ACPA.)

  6. cleveland.com is in trouble by perdida · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am with Robertson on this one.

    The Internet is not a Dewey Decimal System library. The indexing and categorization of information, as it's manifested in the meaning in URLs, is a natural process. It happened due to geeks being funny, people trying to make money, and so on. We have the wonderful histories of sites like www.whitehouse.com, which brings up the question - is it true that people who want information on the web about the White House would not want to see a porno site? I don't think so.
    Protection from surprise on the Internet should not be the realm of the government, but the realm of the individual.

    --
    Goat sex free since 2001
  7. Re:Exactly, If foreign companys want an address by aridhol · · Score: 4, Insightful
    that is why they have their own fucking country codes.


    Funny, I thought the United States had a .us country code. Why should France use .fr if the United States can't use .us?
    --
    I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.