Trademark Shouldn't Be A Monopoly Over A Word
from the judge-overturns-domain-name-ruling dept
Many times here at Techdirt I’ve spoken about how screwed up the current domain dispute resolution system – and how it’s designed to consistently favor big company trademark holders of individuals with legitimate reasons for owning their domains. In the latest twist on those cases, one guy who lost the domain Canadian.biz to Molson (who owns a trademark on the word “Canadian”), took the case to court and had the arbitration decision overturned. The judge pointed out that based on the original arbitration ruling, it would have given Molson a complete monopoly on the word Canadian, rather than just a trademark. As long as the guy who bought Canadian.biz had a legitimate, non-infringing use for it, then he should be allowed to keep it.
