browse comments: Suggestion to consider

Suggestion to consider
John Cody (mailbox@omnisoft.com)
Wed, 3 Mar 1999 18:26:02 -0500

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But since there can only be one "minuteman.com", this could cause much
confusion, because someone looking for the printing company may get the
power supply companys' website instead.

My suggestion:

Why not have a simple rule that a hyperlink must be placed on a disputed
domain's main WebPage that will jump surfers to the alternate website.

For example, if a kid has a nickname of "pokey" and registers the domain
name "pokey.org", but a big entertainment company owns the trademark
"pokey", why not have a rule that requires the kids website to at least have
a link to the entertainment's companies website.

This way if a person was trying to go to entertainment companys' website,
but instead was presented with the kids website, at least the kids website
would contain a link to the site they were really interested in.

Obviously, only legal intellectual property owners could force a particular
domain's webmaster to add the link, so webmasters aren't flooded with
hyperlinks that they need to add to their main WebPage.

Some suggested procedures:

1) Once it has been determined that a party has a legal claim to a domain
name, they could notify the domain's webmaster that they must add a link to
the parties website.
2) The added link would list the alternate party's name and maybe a brief
description of the party so potential surfers can easily discern if it is
the party they are looking for.
3) The hyperlink must be located on the domains main WebPage so accidental
surfers can easily see the alternate domain name's and not have to search
the erroneous web site's pages.
4) Because more then one company might ask to have there links added to a
single website, an exception to procedure 3 might allow the webmaster to
place only a single link on the main WebPage. This one link could be titled
"Related domains" and would direct the surfer to a separate WebPage that
would list all the related web domains. This would allow a webmaster to
comply with the rule while also modifying the main WebPage in a minimal
manner.

In summary:

A) If a person obtains a domain name before another party even filed for a
trademark on that domain name, the registered domain name party is entitled
to the domain hands down.
B) The whole issue of who owns what domain name is so people looking to
visit coke-a-cola's WebPage could type in "coke.com" and be presented with
the desired WebPage. But if they are instead presented with a drug abuse
WebPage, they might not know how to find the desired WebPage and this is
what the legal intellectual property owners want to prevent. So by simply
requiring that the drug abuse site "coke.com" have a link to "cokeacola.com"
might easily solve the problem!

-John Cody
domainrules@max-soft.com