WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- In an important decision of the World
Intellectual Property Organization one of the principal "Baby Bell" telephone
companies (SBC Communications, Inc.) has lost a dispute over the domain names
eBell.com and eBell.org. The international arbitration body decided that an
entrepreneur was entitled to keep the domain names in spite of the fact that
trademark rights in the word "Bell" are concurrently owned by the Regional
Bell Operating Companies that were formed as a result of the court-ordered
break-up of AT&T; in 1983.
"This case demonstrates that entrepreneurs can successfully compete with
the corporate giants in the burgeoning Internet economy" said the winning
attorney, Stephen H. Sturgeon, a Washington, DC lawyer who specializes in
domain name disputes and Internet law issues. "This decision clearly states
that a trademark owner is not automatically entitled to a domain name
containing its trademark. A small business can acquire and utilize a generic
domain name in spite of the fact that a large company may own trademark rights
in the word. This is similar to a decision in another case that we recently
won permitting a businessman to keep the domain name Internet.biz despite a
trademark claim by a Spanish company in the word 'Internet.' In many ways the
Internet is a new frontier which permits entrepreneurs to establish market
niches and compete side-by-side with well-established corporations."
The entrepreneurial company eWorldWideWeb, Inc., a progressive developer
of Internet corporate branding, media and marketing strategies, had registered
the domain names eBell.com and eBell.org in 1999. SBC Communications, Inc.
attempted to acquire the domain names by initiating the legal proceeding
pursuant to the dispute resolution procedures of ICANN, the governing body of
the Internet. According to Mr. Sturgeon, "Although trademark owners are
usually entitled to domain names that include the trademarked term, this
decision holds that, 'no one has exclusive rights to common descriptive terms
used in their generic sense.'"
The full text of the decision can be viewed at
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-0608.html
The website of Stephen H. Sturgeon is
http://www.DomainNameDisputeLawyers.com
The website of eWorldWideWeb, Inc. is http://www.ew3.com
The website of ICANN, the governing body of the Internet is
http://www.icann.org
