This wire service news story illustrates the principle that
one cannot simultaneously have very short names and grow the system to
accommodate lots of organizations. I expect this is just the first of
what will become a torrent of legal conflicts over DNS names. It's
not that DNS names cannot be structured to provide a reasonable degree
of descriptiveness through the use of a few layers of geopolitical
qualification and use of longer strings. The DNS name
"cnri.reston.va.us" is a step in the right direction, but its unusual
among domestic (U.S.) entries and even it does not spell out the full
name of CNRI. It is, however, the case that the Internet community
has not forced such structuring of DNS names and thus we have problems
of the sort described here.
Steve
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Name Flap On Internet Raises Question Of Trademark Law
By ELIZABETH WEISE= Associated Press Writer=
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Brand names and trademarks have long been
so important to companies that they will protect them in court.
Now, it appears, so has a computer address.
In another sign of the growing importance and maturing usage of
the Internet, two groups recently scuffled over the right to use a
name that allows people to reach them on the big computer network.
Wired magazine, a San Francisco-based monthly that covers
digital technology, thought that the designation used by WIRE, a
computer network devoted to women's issues also based in San
Francisco, was too close to the one it uses.
WIRE had wire.net. Wired has wired.com.
The .net means that WIRE is a network. The .com designates a
commercial venture.
Lawyers were brought in, but the fight was solved last month
without going to court.
Wired agreed to pay half what it cost WIRE to change its name to
Women's Wire and to run several ads for the network. In return,
Women's Wire changed its name and its net address, which is now
wwire.net.
Rather than become a test case of trademark law in the
electronic world, Women's Wire decided to settle so it could build
its business, said development director Nancy Rhine.
But devotees of the Internet say such a dispute shows its
frontier days are ending.
``This was the first sign that there were a whole lot of legal
matters that we haven't put our attention on, even though we knew
that they're lurking there,'' said Howard Rheingold, author of
``The Virtual Community,'' a recent book on the social effects of
electronic networks.
With new groups applying for names at the rate of a thousand a
month, finding names that don't overlap is becoming more difficult.
Already there are more than 60 domain names with ``inter-'' in
them.
There's no legal precedent that says whetehr domain names are
like addresses, which can't be trademarked, or like names and phone
numbers, which can.
When a group wants to open a new Internet site, it applies to
InterNIC for a domain name. InterNIC, the Inter-Network Information
Center, has a contract from the National Science Foundation to
assign and keep track of all domain names in the United States. It
is operated by Network Solutions in Herndon, Virginia. Names are
assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
Domain names actually correspond to numbers. The Internet
address for Women's Wire is 192.190.111.25. Information stored in
computer nodes throughout the net translate wwire.net to its
address number so that people don't have to remember a 12-digit
code.
As more people use the network, some engineers believe a new
address system will have to be devised.
``The technical gurus are busy trying to invent ways of getting
around the current numbering scheme,'' InterNIC staffer Duane Stone
said.
As for trademark infringement, Stone says it's not InterNIC's
problem.
``They expect me or somebody here to pronounce the final
judgement and make it all right. But all we can do is say, `You
guys need to come to some agreement of your own.' We're just a
registry, not an enforcer.''
InterNIC has no legal status at all, Stone said.
``Maybe someday they will be a court battle that will straighten
it all out.''
AP-DS-02-20-94 1555EST<