“Registrars can now block all domains that resemble brand names”
"The fundamental problem with services like this is that they suppress far more domains than merely those that would infringe trademark. Domain names are themselves a form of speech that we don't want to see constrained by overzealous attempts at brand enforcement," Kit Walsh, senior staff attorney at EFF told BleepingComputer in a statement.
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"Many trademarks are common words, like 'Apple,' surnames, like 'Ford,' or drawn from preexisting culture, like 'Nike.' Even if a trademark is a unique word, people have a right to talk about brands, products, and aspects of culture."
"To do otherwise silences critical speech, parody, fan works, or even unrelated but similar business names."
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@youronlyone Trademark does **not** restrict ones ability to talk about a product. In fact trademarks on the word, they are on the expression, as in it is only trademarked within the domain it is used and the manner in which it is used.
For example apple owns the trademark for "Apple (TM)" specifically in the computing field, they couldnt, for example, sue a newspaper for talking about apples or even talking about Apple specifically (the company) due to trademarks.
@freemo Yes, that is correct. However, this new service is going to make it easy and more affordable for companies to block a lot of domains, and will more likely also block those that share the same name but not the same region nor the same trademark category. And this service doesn't have a way to handle that.
@youronlyone Agreed, as I said the service is problematic.
But the important thing to point out here is it really has nothing to do with trademark. Its a trademark-like system that has been privatized and is unrelated to legal trademarks.
It would be more appropriate to describe it as a way for companies to reserve domain names at a cost without actually needing to buy those domain names. Perhaps broadly enough to be considered a regex. Thinking this has any real relationship to trademarks just leads you down the wrong path when thinking about this IMO.
@freemo Ahh! I see what you mean! ^^