Erik Moeller wrote:
Then cite from the Russian civil code or from Russian precedents the relevent passages that show that Russian law acknowledges unregistered trademarks.
Not needed. Unregistered trademarks are legal in the US and EU countries so if they want to travel to these nations then they should respect our trademark.
ICANN has separate rules that govern domain names; they are very highly supportive of protecting all trademarks (even more so than regular trademark law is). And registration in the appropriate jurisdiction will be sought before any legal action is taken so your point is moot.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
On Sun, Sep 07, 2003 at 07:04:35PM -0700, Daniel Mayer wrote:
Erik Moeller wrote:
Then cite from the Russian civil code or from Russian precedents the relevent passages that show that Russian law acknowledges unregistered trademarks.
Not needed. Unregistered trademarks are legal in the US and EU countries so if they want to travel to these nations then they should respect our trademark.
Stop the fucking FUD, ok ?
Nobody's going to be arrested abroad for breaking laws that don't even exist in one's own country while being in it.
Taw wrote:
Nobody's going to be arrested abroad for breaking laws that don't even exist in one's own country while being in it.
Dmitrij Skljarov was. We should most definitely not go down that route!
Even freezing financial accounts (the kind of civil action that mav meant) is highly problematic.
-- Toby
Daniel-
Not needed. Unregistered trademarks are legal in the US and EU countries
Evidence that unregistered trademarks have the same validity in the EU as in the US? Here's another page:
http://www.trademarks.nl/en/introduction/ "Laws generally only protect marks against infringement if registered in the (state) trademarks register. Otherwise anyone else can register and even prohibit the use by the original owner. (Note: this is different in the USA but holds true for most other countries of the world.)"
so if they want to travel to these nations then they should respect our trademark.
Yeah, I'm just waiting for Slashdot to run the story about some Russian being arrested on US soil for violating an obscure and unfair US law .. oh wait, that already happened! Google for "Dmitry Sklyarov".
ICANN has separate rules that govern domain names; they are very highly supportive of protecting all trademarks
ICANN's trademark rules are evil, have been abused to suppress free speech on many occasions and should be fought, not implicitly or explicitly supported.
Regards,
Erik
Erik Moeller wrote:
ICANN's trademark rules are evil, have been abused to suppress free speech on many occasions and should be fought, not implicitly or explicitly supported.
I disagree with this political statement. I feel that Wikipedia should protect its interests through the avenues available, regardless of your personal viewpoints on ICANN's trademark rules. If someone is purposely masquerading as us, they should be stopped.
-Mark
Delirium wrote:
Erik Moeller wrote:
ICANN's trademark rules are evil, have been abused to suppress free speech on many occasions and should be fought, not implicitly or explicitly supported.
I disagree with this political statement. I feel that Wikipedia should protect its interests through the avenues available, regardless of your personal viewpoints on ICANN's trademark rules.
Because the ends justify the means?
I'm not sure that Erik is reading this particular situation right; but I absolutely agree with him on the broad point: If we use intellectual property law to coerce somebody, then we had damned well better make sure that it's ethical (in our own opinions, of course) as well as legally sound. And I also agree that IP law diverges from ethics greatly, certainly more than most international law.
-- Toby
Joy. Thorny legal discussions. I have to say, it's funny, considering making use of ICANN's domain name resolution policies. Mind you, I'm not opposed to doing so in this case if the Wikipedia.ru people are difficult about it, but I don't think they really will be. It's just that I'm very strongly against ICANN and its policies. I -do- think we need to defend the Wikipedia name. It's been named on CNN and in Time, and we don't really have another one. That's a critical bit... if we let others use the name Wikipedia... what do we use to disambiguate? 'The One True Wikipedia'? Doesn't fit so nice on a logo. (And isn't it POV? ;)) But anyway, this is all academic (not that there's anything /wrong/ with that) until we hear what they have to say.
--Jake
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