Are the Clintons patent/trademark attorneys? Since it seems that the majority of domain name cases that I've heard about are trademark infringement cases it seems the lawyers most likely to benefit would be IP lawyers.
It seems to me that what should be protected is the actual phrase that is a trademark/copywrite. Sound alikes shouldn't be protected.
Given how much the US government and justice system seem to understand IT (read: less than that idiot who used his/her CD-ROM as a cup holder) I think it is a good idea to allow these type of cases to be decided in the courts. Maybe then some of these people will begin to educate themselves at least a little bit about the computer industry. As it is, they seem to be listening to every person that shows up claiming to know something about IT. How can the government make decisions about the Internet(or the IT industry in general) when it doesn't even understand the bare basics? Like which is the browser and which is the operating system or what a cookie is. If this stuff keeps turning up in courts they may actully begin to absorb some of the information. I'm not saying that all of the politicians and legal types are uninformed, but most seem to be.
I think people who work in the US government and the justice system could benefit by a short course in the basics of IT. After that, they can go to the experts. They'll still get left in the dust by people who understand these technologies, but some of the truly silly ideas they have about IT might evaporate. (Al Gore invented the Internet!?)
Slashdot Mirror
Are the Clintons patent/trademark attorneys? Since it seems that the majority of domain name cases that I've heard about are trademark infringement cases it seems the lawyers most likely to benefit would be IP lawyers.
It seems to me that what should be protected is the actual phrase that is a trademark/copywrite. Sound alikes shouldn't be protected.
Given how much the US government and justice system seem to understand IT (read: less than that idiot who used his/her CD-ROM as a cup holder) I think it is a good idea to allow these type of cases to be decided in the courts. Maybe then some of these people will begin to educate themselves at least a little bit about the computer industry. As it is, they seem to be listening to every person that shows up claiming to know something about IT. How can the government make decisions about the Internet(or the IT industry in general) when it doesn't even understand the bare basics? Like which is the browser and which is the operating system or what a cookie is. If this stuff keeps turning up in courts they may actully begin to absorb some of the information. I'm not saying that all of the politicians and legal types are uninformed, but most seem to be.
I think people who work in the US government and the justice system could benefit by a short course in the basics of IT. After that, they can go to the experts. They'll still get left in the dust by people who understand these technologies, but some of the truly silly ideas they have about IT might evaporate. (Al Gore invented the Internet!?)
Talveren