Bad-faith domains grow
Karen Dearne
APRIL 18, 2006
THE number of "bad faith" domain-name registrations raises concerns that trademarks are increasingly being infringed online, the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property has found.
Bad-faith registrations are where a party deliberately and unlawfully sets out to benefit by registering a domain containing another party's business name and associated trademarks.
The present process of domain-name registration does not require the registrar to check whether the same or similar domain names are already listed.
The same situation applies to the registration of company names and business names.
"There is a public misconception that registrars check for existing prior rights, such as registered trademarks, when registering a domain name," ACIP says in a report.
"The result is that business owners conduct inadequate checks for common law and registered trademarks before embarking on a business activity.
"Business-name registrants often become aware that their name infringes a pre-existing trade mark only after they have made a major investment.
"A significant number of traders do not fully comprehend the legal significance or inherent differences between trademarks, business names, company names and domain names.
"Compounding this is the resulting confusion that exists in the business community as to the nature of rights, if any, associated with each identifier."
At present, people can set up a business, commence trading under a registered business name without knowing they are infringing an existing trade mark, federal Industry parliamentary secretary Bob Baldwin said. He said the Government would consider the ACIP report in detail when making decisions.
ACIP recommends mandatory searching of trademarks to ensure there is no conflict prior to registration; amending the Trade Marks Act to give registered business and company name owners protection against identical and confusingly similar registrations; and a single business name system to replace the state-based one used at present.
Any changes to the domain names registration system should be considered after the other matters have been resolved, the ACIP report says.
"Whilst evidence suggests that bad-faith registration of domain names has increased in recent years, the ACIP is satisfied the (domain bodies) have been dealing with the problem," it says.
* Clothing maker and retailer Supre operates more than 100 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
It first registered the name Supre as a trademark in 1990; it also owns the domain name supre.au.com.
In 2000, another party registered a business name that was very similar to Supre's trademark in Western Australia; and further registered a confusingly similar domain name in 2001. The business name was cancelled in 2003.
In 2004, Supre's lawyers lodged a complaint with the domain authority, claiming the other name should be transferred to them because it was "confusingly similar" to their brand. The other party did not respond, and the panel transferred the domain to Supre.
The Australian
APRIL 18, 2006
THE number of "bad faith" domain-name registrations raises concerns that trademarks are increasingly being infringed online, the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property has found.
Bad-faith registrations are where a party deliberately and unlawfully sets out to benefit by registering a domain containing another party's business name and associated trademarks.
The present process of domain-name registration does not require the registrar to check whether the same or similar domain names are already listed.
The same situation applies to the registration of company names and business names.
"There is a public misconception that registrars check for existing prior rights, such as registered trademarks, when registering a domain name," ACIP says in a report.
"The result is that business owners conduct inadequate checks for common law and registered trademarks before embarking on a business activity.
"Business-name registrants often become aware that their name infringes a pre-existing trade mark only after they have made a major investment.
"A significant number of traders do not fully comprehend the legal significance or inherent differences between trademarks, business names, company names and domain names.
"Compounding this is the resulting confusion that exists in the business community as to the nature of rights, if any, associated with each identifier."
At present, people can set up a business, commence trading under a registered business name without knowing they are infringing an existing trade mark, federal Industry parliamentary secretary Bob Baldwin said. He said the Government would consider the ACIP report in detail when making decisions.
ACIP recommends mandatory searching of trademarks to ensure there is no conflict prior to registration; amending the Trade Marks Act to give registered business and company name owners protection against identical and confusingly similar registrations; and a single business name system to replace the state-based one used at present.
Any changes to the domain names registration system should be considered after the other matters have been resolved, the ACIP report says.
"Whilst evidence suggests that bad-faith registration of domain names has increased in recent years, the ACIP is satisfied the (domain bodies) have been dealing with the problem," it says.
* Clothing maker and retailer Supre operates more than 100 stores across Australia and New Zealand.
It first registered the name Supre as a trademark in 1990; it also owns the domain name supre.au.com.
In 2000, another party registered a business name that was very similar to Supre's trademark in Western Australia; and further registered a confusingly similar domain name in 2001. The business name was cancelled in 2003.
In 2004, Supre's lawyers lodged a complaint with the domain authority, claiming the other name should be transferred to them because it was "confusingly similar" to their brand. The other party did not respond, and the panel transferred the domain to Supre.
The Australian
posted by worldnews at 10:39 PM
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