nl/be/com domain copyright

question.

[ikbenhet1]

I've been wondering about the following:

I have a nice domainname for which i own the tld's .nl .be & .com .

Now there's a guy with the same domainname with the tld .nu . If this guy get's a copyright for the name for his .nu tld, am i then forced to 'give' him my .nl .be & .com tls's?

Is that true? if so does anybody know where/how to copyright domain-names when you live in holland?

[jazzguy]

I don't know about Holland, but in the US, domain names fall under trademark law, not copyright law. Names, slogans, titles, short phrases, etc. fall under the area of commerce and may be trademarked if they qualify. Creative works are copyrighted. From the US Copyright website: "Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed."

Trademark registration is much more complicated and expensive than copyright registration. Even after registration, the person that is entitled to the trademark would be the one that first used it in commerce. The geographic areas of use also come in to play, but most websites would be worldwide. Again, this applies in the US, you would have to check with your government.

In the US, two helpful websites are the US Patent and Trademark Office at [uspto.gov...] and the US Copyright Office at [copyright.gov...]

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, just a copyright owner and a trademark owner. You should definitely check your country's laws and if you decide to register, consult an attorney that specializes in trademark and copyright law. It's possible to do it without a lawyer, but you have to do a lot of reading and research.

[mgream]

jazzyguy: this the same situation in the UK and EU with regard to domain names, trademarks and copyrights. In a well known case in the UK it was found that there was no copyright in the word "exxon" even though it was a unique product of creative effort involving substantial sums of money: the courts indicated that such short works are unprotectable under copyright. To protect a domain name, you need a trademark, and you can use WTO UDRP to resolve issues.