Ok, I've got a friend who sells Lord of the Rings stamps online he buys from the New Zealand Post Office. It's a nice little sideline--easy money--he offers great service. However, now he's been "busted" for infringing on the trademarks owned by Tolkien Enterprises EVEN THOUGH THESE ARE JUST POST OFFICE STAMPS sold to the public. Sheesh. Does the Little Guy ALWAYS get screwed?
He writes: Loads of news starting with a pending hearing before the Arbitration Forum http://www.arbitration-forum.com on all my lord rings stamps and coins website registrations. Going on their past ruling which have been very generous to the trademark holders I expect to lose. Background: Trademarks are issued in classes i.e. many companies have Apple in their name and can lay claim to www.apple.com (but not www.applecomputer.com), and before registering lord-rings-stamps.com I check that none of the trademarks owned by Tolkien Enterprises covered postage stamps or coinage. Unfortunately the decisions so far rendering in most domain disputes have tended to favor trademark holders even when their area of business was different from the supposed infringer.
http://www.lord-rings-stamps.com/domain_dispute.html
Posted by trek/taro
at 11:12 AM JST
Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2004 11:18 AM JST
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Updated: Thursday, February 5, 2004 11:18 AM JST
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