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FENNEMORE
CRAIG I-LAW
Fennemore Craig counsels clients on Internet, branding and
e-commerce issues and protection and commercial exploitation
of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Clients
include a range of domestic and international businesses from
Internet start-ups to large multi-nationals, in industries ranging
from computer software and hardware to pharmaceuticals, toys,
games, optics, and electronics. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Steve
Winkelman at swinkelm@fclaw.com
or 602.916.5407. Fennemore Craig Domain Names Trademarks
Trade Secrets Trademark
owners will be able to "stake claims" for .biz domain
name addresses starting May 21, 2001, and claims for .info domain
name addresses will start in June. Staking a claim for a .biz
address will not get the domain name address for the owner,
rather it will simply provide the owner with notice should someone
else register the name first. For .info domain names, trademark
owners will have 30 days to register names (before anyone else).
Should multiple people decide to register the same domain name
during the 30-day sunrise period, the registrant will be selected
at random. The .info address will become available to the public
in August. Agreements with the other new domain operators are
expected to be finalized soon. The U.S.
Department of Commerce has issued a press statement indicating
that it will approve the ICANN-VeriSign deal, allowing VeriSign
to continue as the manager of the .com master registry. Actor Kevin Spacey has successfully recovered kevinspacy.com from a "typosquatter," who has registered thousands of misspelled names. The website owner was making a decent profit from people who spelled Kevin Spacey's name incorrectly while searching for the actor's website. Link While Barcelona recovered barcelona.com, Brisbane has not been able to obtain brisbanecity.com. Link Your parents were right when they told you that you could learn something in school. Claremont McKenna College agreed to a student's demand for $170,000 for the rights to ClaremontMcKenna.com. Of the $170,000 award, fellowships with a focus on entrepreneurship will receive $120,000 while the remainder will fund a student-run website. Link The House
of Representatives has passed a bill that will implement the
Madrid Protocol, which will allow trademark owners to file one
application in the U.S. to cover any country that is a member
of the Madrid Protocol. Until now, U.S. trademark owners have
had to file separate applications in every country. For the
last four years, Congress has refused to implement the Protocol
primarily because of objections raised by the State Department
over voting rights by member countries under the Protocol. These
issues, however, have been resolved. There are currently 51
countries that have signed the Protocol. Link People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and People Eating Tasty Animals are still fighting over ownership of peta.org. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals has owned the trademark PETA for years and claims trademark infringement, while the People Eating Tasty Animals says it is being funny and claims First Amendment protection. Earlier in May, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the matter, and is likely to rule on this issue sometime in the next few months. Link The well-known chipmaker Intel has sued International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, i.e., Intelsat, for trademark infringement. Intelsat has been an international government organization for years, but plans to become private this summer and use the INTELSAT trademark in the U.S. Link Bid pricing information is a protected trade secret and a former employee who uses such information to bid on similar jobs is misappropriating trade secrets, according to a Colorado court. Link According to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Festo decision, which bars infringement claims based on equivalent technology for limitations amended during the prosecution of a patent, requires summary judgment of non-infringement. Link Microsoft has agreed to comply with the safe harbor provisions negotiated by the U.S. and EU after the EU enacted its privacy directive. Link We're number 3! After years at the top of the web-use rankings, the U.S. slipped to third place in terms of percentage of population using the web. Sweden ranks first with 65%, Canada ranks second with 60% and the U.S. ranks third with 59%. Link While it is certainly not as important as protesting a law that required black people to sit in the back of the bus, Rosa Parks has brought another lawsuit concerning a rap artist's use of her name as the title of a song. The song, by rapper OutKast, celebrates the singer and uses racial epithets and derogatory references to women. The artist claims that his song title is protected by the First Amendment. Rosa Parks claims the rapper is infringing on her name and reputation. Link Southwest Airlines has sued a travel website created by five other airlines. Southwest alleges false and misleading information concerning Southwest's fares, routes, and the ability to purchase tickets online. Link
C. OWEN PAEPKE (602) 916-5384 ANNE L. KLEINDIENST (602) 916-5392 RAY K. HARRIS, Chair (602) 916-5414 RICHARD E. ONEY (602) 916-5303 DAVID K. GRAY (520) 879-6852 STEPHEN R. WINKELMAN (602) 916-5407 SUSAN STONE ROSENFIELD (602) 916-5317 STACIE KEIM SMITH (602) 916-5451 JAMES M. SHINN (602) 916-5436 SUSAN MOON
(602) 916-5394 DISCLAIMER The information contained in this e-mail has been prepared by Fennemore Craig for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. It is provided only as general information which may or may not reflect the most current legal developments. This information is not provided in the course of, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship, and it does not substitute for obtaining legal advice from an attorney licensed in your state. Legal advice should take into account the specific facts of your situation, and you should not draw any particular conclusions from the information presented here. You should seek professional legal counsel before acting upon any of the information contained in this e-mail. Before sending information to us, however, please speak with one of our lawyers and get authorization to send that information to us.
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