|
|
|
         |  | NewslettersIntellectual Property Update™E-COMMERCE Madrid, Spain recently appealed to The World Intellectual Property Organization to obtain the domain name madrid.com from Easylink Corporation, a U.S. company. The World Intellectual Property Organization refused to transfer madrid.com to Madrid, finding the city had no inherent “geographic” right to the name and Easylink used the domain name madrid.com to provide email addresses to thousands of users. WIPO (2003). TRADEMARKS If you are expanding your business outside of the U.S., protection of your trademarks worldwide has just been simplified. The U.S. recently implemented a trademark treaty, making us members of the Madrid Protocol. Now the owner of a U.S. trademark registration may use it to seek a trademark registration in any of the Madrid Protocol member countries by filing one international application in English. Each member country will then have only eighteen months in which to reject the application. Upon registration, renewals and address changes may be made through a single request to the World Intellectual Property Organization, simplifying maintenance of the registration. The approximately fifty members of the Madrid Protocol include Australia, Czech Republic, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Content or activity on a website can be used to haul defendants into court. A group of companies in California, which maintained no bricks and mortar presence in New York were sued in New York for infringing the copyright of a New York company. The New York court found that it had jurisdiction over the California companies because they had conducted business through their website with New York residents. Excelsior College v. Frye (ND NY 2/12/04) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW CENTER, LLC
314.369.8133 or 636.578.6252 Use of this site does not form an attorney client relationship. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. Copyright © 2005 by Intellectual Property Law Center LLC. All rights reserved. You may reproduce materials available at this site for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution. All copies must include this copyright statement. |