Dot com is US property
Posted on September 04, 2002 @ 15:50 in General
Yuck! The Register writes that two recent court decisions in combination with the 1999 Anti-Cybersquatting legislation mean that .com domainnames are now considered "property" you own and because the .com domain name registry sits in Virginia, Virginia (and US) law apply. Basically, if you're not a Virginia inhabitant, you're the "absentee" owner of some property in Virginia.
If you injure someone by virtue of that property (we're talking trademark disputes here) then Virginia's courts will take the case. This may sound surprising, but it has worked for both Porsche and Harrods, each of whom sued some sixty or so domains in a single action.
What's even worse than the fact that you'll have to hire horrendously expensive American lawyers, there's a clause in one of the rulings that states that:
"Virginia's interest in not permitting foreign companies to use rights emanating from, and facilities located in, its territory to infringe U.S. trademarks also supports [this] exercise...." In other words, if your .com domain name (however inadvertently) infringes a US trademark, the Commonwealth of Virginia has an interest in not permitting you, as a foreigner or otherwise, to use the facilities of the domain name registry database.
These sort of US centric land grabs make me feel sick. I mean, every other country uses their country top level domain and sticks second level .edu.au, .com.tw domains under it. Aren't the top level .edu, .org, .net and .com domains supposed to be global domains? And how is it that one country not only implicitly lays claim to these domains (how many .edu.us, .com.us domains do you know?! or conversely, how many non-American educational institutions have a .edu domain name?) but also claims ultimate legal power over these domains?
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