Category: Computer/Network gt; gt; Internet

Analysis:

Squatting on Internet domain names is a benign behavior

● Domain name squatting incidents are mostly concentrated in COM domain names

●Domain names and trademarks cannot establish a one-to-one correspondence

●Domain name rights should not be ignored due to trademark rights

●CN domain name registration growth rate ranks first in the world

Moderator’s words: Recently, Microsoft has filed multiple domain name lawsuits against more than 300 related COM domain names that have been registered; while “Reunion Rabbit”, “Guangzhou Domain names such as "Metro", "CCTV One Set" and "Lafang" have also been registered. Is cybersquatting legal? How to deal with disputes over trademark rights and domain name rights? This magazine recently invited Yu Guofu, a well-known Internet lawyer, Hu Gang, a member of the Beijing Lawyers Association, Xue Hong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, Liu Zhijiang, assistant director of the China Internet Network Information Center, and Tang Guangliang, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to discuss relevant issues.

Preemptive registration does not mean malicious registration

Moderator: What is the current situation of CN domain name registration?

Liu Zhijiang: The country has been vigorously supporting and promoting the registration and use of CN domain names. Currently, the number of CN domain name registrations has approached 1.2 million, ranking first in Asia, and the growth rate ranks first in the world. While the rapid development of CN domain names has also led to the development of subsequent industrial chains and virtual hosting and other businesses. Figures show that the number of websites with independent domain names increased by 90,000 in the first half of this year, while the number only increased by 20,000 in the second half of last year. It can be said that taking the CN domain name as the leader has driven the healthy development of Internet infrastructure.

Yu Guofu: There are two concepts that cannot be confused: preemptive registration and malicious registration. The full name of squatting should be "preemptive registration" rather than "snatching registration", which refers to the act of registering valuable domain names first. Squatting is a benign and legal behavior.

Hu Gang: The reason for the emergence of squatting behavior is that domain names are scarce and non-renewable resources. A good domain name is like a house in a good location. Internationally, "first-in, first-served" is a common practice. Therefore, as far as squatting itself is concerned, it is neither illegal nor in line with international practice. Yu Guofu: Why is there criticism now? Because there are "malicious registrations" that interfere with people's vision. The so-called "malicious registration" mainly refers to registration behaviors that harm the rights and interests of others. For example, if you register a domain name of a well-known company and sell it to the company at a high price, this is a typical "malicious registration."

Hu Gang: Determining whether a registration is malicious involves the rights of the registrant, the rights of the complainant, etc. The situation is relatively complicated and needs to be decided by an arbitration institution or court. Judging from the current domain name squatting incidents reported by the media, most of them focus on COM domain names managed by the United States, such as "Prime Minister", "Microsoft Rebate", etc. These disputes need to be resolved by the corresponding agencies in the United States.

Increased censorship will make registration inefficient

Moderator: What is the current registration and management situation of CN domain names?

Liu Zhijiang: The rapid development of CN domain names in recent years is closely related to the current and fast registration system, and is also consistent with the pace of Internet development. Vigorously promoting and using CN domain names will, on the one hand, help improve the autonomy of my country's Internet and maintain the security of my country's Internet information; on the other hand, it will also play an important role in protecting the brand image of Chinese companies and promoting their development.

Moderator: Some people have suggested that in order to prevent domain name rights disputes, the domain name registration authority can first review and then register the domain name to avoid it. Is this approach feasible?

Xue Hong: In international practice, domain name registration adopts the principle of “application first, no review”, because domain name registration agencies are only technical management agencies, and it is obviously unrealistic for domain name registration agencies to be responsible for intellectual property review responsibilities. Once the domain name review step is added, the domain name registration process will undoubtedly be as lengthy as trademark registration. This efficiency does not match the speed of Internet development.

If domain name registration takes several years like trademark registration, how can the international Internet achieve such great development in a few years? Therefore, in terms of domain name management, the management principle of "application first and review later" is beneficial to the development of my country's domain name system, raising domain name awareness for enterprises, and promoting the development of the Internet.

Tang Guangliang: It is not feasible to require registration and management agencies to assume the responsibility of protecting intellectual property rights. First of all, domain name registration and management agencies do not have the legal "power" to protect intellectual property rights. Secondly, domain name registration and management organizations are service organizations adapted to network development and operation and do not have the "ability" to protect intellectual property rights. In addition, in addition to respecting the intellectual property rights of others in its own activities, domain name registration agencies have no obligation to protect the intellectual property rights of others against the actions of third parties.

Balancing trademark rights and domain name rights

Moderator: As we all know, there are relatively large disputes about trademark rights and domain name rights at home and abroad.

Hu Gang: The reason why domain name disputes have attracted a certain amount of attention is because this type of dispute is still new to some media practitioners, so they have been exaggerated too much. According to statistics, in recent years, the number of domain name dispute cases accepted by courts has remained relatively stable. Yu Guofu: It is impossible to establish a one-to-one correspondence between domain names and trademarks because the trademarks themselves have a high probability of overlapping. Trademarks often overlap on different categories of goods. For example, "Great Wall Brand" has registered trademarks for everything from cars to inks, and they belong to different entities. If Great Wall Motor raises objections, the domain name registered by Great Wall Ink will be deleted, which obviously violates Great Wall Ink's rights. It is conceivable that if this contradiction extends to corporate name rights and trade name rights, risks will be more difficult to control. Therefore, I personally reject the suggestion that existing trademark rights should be used to determine domain name rights.

Hu Gang: In terms of legal rights, domain name rights are also one of the important rights and should not be ignored because of trademark rights. The existing trademark law protects words, patterns or combinations thereof that can avoid confusion for goods or services, but does not protect trademark owners’ exclusive rights to common words on their trademarks. For example, if a trademark owner claims exclusive rights to the generic characters on its trademark and prohibits others from registering domain names with generic characters, it is an abuse of rights. Words that have public rights and interests, such as the names of national government agencies, the Olympic Games, etc., are reserved in advance during domain name registration and management, thereby effectively ensuring public rights and interests. Civil rights owners such as individuals and companies need to take the initiative to protect the domain names of their own rights and interests. After a dispute occurs, they can submit it to an arbitration institution for resolution. Conflicts of interest between trademark registrants and domain name holders are essentially civil disputes and should be arbitrated by domain name arbitration institutions and people's courts in accordance with the law. In domain name registrations around the world, civil rights disputes are inevitable. This situation exists in any open domain name. The key to prevention is to pay attention to it by the enterprise itself, rather than through policy protection. Only by registering and protecting our companies in advance can we avoid disputes to the greatest extent.

(Moderator: Zhong Xiaojun, Guangming Daily)