RTC Objection
NIC 28.3.2000
WIPO Decison
WIPO Entscheidung
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Nordenholz
Home Page
and
scientologie.org
The domain "scientologie.org"
was put on status "hold" by InterNIC in September 1996.
October 1996, we opened the
domain "scientologie.de".
In October 1997 we moved the domain from lightlink.com to a German provider.
Reason: to protect lightlink.com from further hassles.
In June 1996 the lawyers of
the Curch of Scientology first contacted our provider "lightlink.com"
(see below). Short after that InterNIC was approached by the Church Lawyers
with the result that "scientologie.org" was put on "hold".
Freie Zone e.V., (Free Zone
Assoc.)
10 Oct. 1997
07/12/96 Friday 2:35pm EST
As of today I have not heard
back from Small, Larkin and Kidde on this matter. If you are interested
in more reading materia on trademark issues and domain names in particular
please refer to
Oppedahl
& Larson
What's
in a Name?
06/11/96 Tuesday 8:23pm EST
I have received a fax from Mr. Small, of Small, Larkin and Kidde, concerning
the scientologie.org domain name and the Free Zone Nordenholz Home page.
They are informing me that both SCIENTOLOGY and SCIENTOLOGIE are registered
trademarks and service marks of their client, the Religious Technology
Center, and that the use of the scientologie.org and Scientologie Home
Page on our system is an infringement of their clients rights.
They further say 'your actions in this respect will lead to litigation
unless you act immediately to withdraw the registration of the domain
name in question and the "SCIENTOLOGIE" Home Page with which
it is associated.'
Mr. Small ends by saying that immediate acknowledgement and compliance
from me is necessary to avoid further proceedings.
To show good faith in this matter I have removed the Scientologie home
page from its connection to the domain scientologie.org, pending further
discussions between the legal owner of the domain, the Freie Zone e.V.
(Free Zone Assoc.) in Germany, and Mr. Small.
I can not in good faith submit a request for withdrawal of the scientologie.org
domain name to the internic because I am not the legal owner of the domain
name, and I believe I would be liable to the legal owner if I were to
take such action with out their consent. (6/14/96 I called the internic
directly on this matter requesting the proper forms to send to Mr. Small
so he could initiate a complaint against the domain name. They told me
flat outright that they would not honor a request from me to withdraw
the domain name because I was not the legal owner of it, merely the primary
name server administrator.) Mr. Small is free to contact the internic
at (703) 742-4777 option 3, and request information on how to contend
a domain name. The number tends to be busy, but it does answer. The prerequisite
policy and forms for contesting a domain name can be found at http://rs.internic.net.
He is also directed to the owner of the domain name to discuss the matter
further. The adress of the Free Zone Assoc. is:
Freie Zone e.V.
(Free Zone Association)
P.O. Box 1215
83524 Haag i.Obb.
Germany
I also can not in good faith
presently remove access to the home page itself, because I do not believe,
and Mr. Small has not claimed, that this page contains any copyright infringements,
and I do not believe that the mere use of a trademarked term, particularly
in a valid context, is itself an infringement of intellectual property
rights.
I am not a lawyer, and I will be discussing these matters more thoroughly
with our trademark specialist, Chris Michaels of Barnard, Brown and Michaels,
Ithaca, NY (607) 273-1711, bbm@lightlink.com. If he thinks I should remove
the home page, pending further proceedings, then of course I will.
is not my desire to enter into litigation with the Religious Technology
Center nor to infringe any validly held trademarks, servicemarks, or copyrights
held by either the RTC or the Free Zone Association.
Yours in Good Faith,
Homer Wilson Smith
System Administrator/Owner
Art Matrix - Lightlink
http://www.lightlink.com
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