| Conflicts between domain names and trademarks law, mainly arise from the lack of coordination between their registration processes. The choice and registration of domain names is not subject to any formal regulation and is established on a "first-come first-serve" basis and trademarks are instead subject to a statutory system. Moreover, an important difference between trademarks and domain names is the scope of their reach. Domain names have an instantaneous transnational presence, while trademark law depends on a legislative territory. When a trademark holder wishes to establish himself on the Internet, the holder is sometimes confronted with the fact that someone has already registered a domain name using his own mark. Domain names, as new commercial identifiers, are gateways to web sites and have become one of the most contentious legal issues on the Internet. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to study the legal interactions in cyberspace in order to find solutions on how they should be handled. The Domain Name System (DNS) is an ideal framework to do so. The current controversy over the Internet's DNS raises important questions about how the Internet should be administered and governed. A Governance, resulting from the synergy between the technical architecture, social norms, self-regulation, contracts and the law, is not unique to cyberspace. However, the conflict between domain names and trademarks clearly shows the need to search for new directions and develop policy cooperation (or regulated self regulation) in order to predict, establish and monitor the rules governing the Internet. |
