New gTLD hopefuls play trademark games in EU, too

[Joly MacFie]

(sigh)

http://domainnamewire.com/2012/04/06/new-tld-trademark-eu/

New gTLD hopefuls play trademark games in EU, too
Friday, April 6th, 2012

French lawyer with ICANN, NAF, and WIPO connections helps new TLD
applicants file
trademarks for prospective top level domains.

I've chronicled many of the attempts by new gTLD hopefuls to
"frontrun" trademarks for new
TLDs in the United States. Here are 115 examples.

But that's just in the U.S. system. And it's not a huge threat since
the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office is rejecting these applications.

Yet there's some trademarking activity in the European Union as well.

One of the prolific filers is Constantine Roussos, who is behind one
of the .music
initiatives.

Back in 2009 he successfully registered two stylized trademarks for
dot music with the
Trade Marks and Design Registrations Office of the European Union. He
later tried to file
a similar one in the U.S. but was rebuffed.

While ICANN doesn't care about existing "dot" trademarks, it's
possible these trademarks
will cause TLDs to get tied up in the courts.

In 2010 Roussos commented to ICANN:

   Rest assured that if we, as .MUSIC are faced with the possibility
of being gamed and
abused in a manner that we find illegal, we will use our trademarks
and other means
necessary to do what we have to do to protect ourselves and our
respective community.
While trademarks alone should not be the sole determinant of earning a
TLD, it is the only
means we have of protection, since ICANN has not incorporated any
mechanisms to prevent
TLD applicant abuse, gaming and unfair piggybacking from other initiatives.

Now it's not just .music Roussos is after. He has filed 21 additional
applications since
December 30. They all have stylized logos like these:

[....]

--
James S. Tyre
Law Offices of James S. Tyre
10736 Jefferson Blvd., #512
Culver City, CA 90230-4969
310-839-4114/310-839-4602(fax)
jstyre at jstyre.com
Policy Fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org




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