Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣
“Registrars can now block all domains that resemble brand names”
"The fundamental problem with services like this is that they suppress far more domains than merely those that would infringe trademark. Domain names are themselves a form of speech that we don't want to see constrained by overzealous attempts at brand enforcement," Kit Walsh, senior staff attorney at EFF told BleepingComputer in a statement.
1/2
Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣
"Many trademarks are common words, like 'Apple,' surnames, like 'Ford,' or drawn from preexisting culture, like 'Nike.' Even if a trademark is a unique word, people have a right to talk about brands, products, and aspects of culture."
"To do otherwise silences critical speech, parody, fan works, or even unrelated but similar business names."
2/2
🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
@youronlyone Trademark does **not** restrict ones ability to talk about a product. In fact trademarks on the word, they are on the expression, as in it is only trademarked within the domain it is used and the manner in which it is used.
For example apple owns the trademark for "Apple (TM)" specifically in the computing field, they couldnt, for example, sue a newspaper for talking about apples or even talking about Apple specifically (the company) due to trademarks.
🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
Domains dont inherently infringe on trademark by the nature of the name themselves.
For example if I got (Assuming it were free) https://apple.io and I used that domain to sell hats shapped like apples it would not (And could not) be considered a trademark violation.
Companies may choose to block swaths of domains in a scheme like this (And yea its problematic)... but its important to note this is not about protecting trademarks as this system would be unable to determine infringement on trademarks since a domain name alone is not enough to determine if it infringes.
Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣
@freemo Yes, that is correct. However, this new service is going to make it easy and more affordable for companies to block a lot of domains, and will more likely also block those that share the same name but not the same region nor the same trademark category. And this service doesn't have a way to handle that.
🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
@youronlyone Agreed, as I said the service is problematic.
But the important thing to point out here is it really has nothing to do with trademark. Its a trademark-like system that has been privatized and is unrelated to legal trademarks.
It would be more appropriate to describe it as a way for companies to reserve domain names at a cost without actually needing to buy those domain names. Perhaps broadly enough to be considered a regex. Thinking this has any real relationship to trademarks just leads you down the wrong path when thinking about this IMO.
Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣
@freemo Ahh! I see what you mean! ^^
szescstopni
@freemo @youronlyone I'm a bit worried about all grannies named Smith https://www.npr.org/2023/06/23/1184071306/apple-vs-apples-the-tech-giant-is-fighting-to-trademark-the-fruit
🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱
Why? Apple got a limited trademark that cant be applied to the sale of apples or little grannies. As they point out in the interview they are appealing that, but swiss law is very clear and they have no chance of winning that (just as they wouldnt in the USA). So whats the fear? I mean if they could get such a patent sure, but they cant and never have, the fact that they try, and always fail, is how I'd expect it to work. Cant blame them for trying.
Also keep in mind in Switzerland getting a trademark registered doesnt mean the trademark is enforceable. Trademark conflicts arent checked at registration time. But they do check if the patent is technically legal in terms of what it is applying for should there be no conflict. Which is why requesting a real world common good (like an apple) as a global trademark was rejected, it wouldnt be legal.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.