No worries. This is the first bill I actually read, and read to understand. I sought others opinions and luckily came across a response by a well respected trademark and patent attorney whom I've unfortunately had to work with to defend myself.
Here are the bullet points from my perspective:
1) The federal government, specifically the FTC (remember Stern vs. Clear Channel vs. Michael Powell?) and state attorneys general will REPLACE WIPO and ICANN...replace I said...yikes
2) The TM protections will be greatly broadened to include things like generic brand names, geographical names, and other "nearbys" that the FTC will subjectively judge to be infringing. Not even the USPTO will grant applications to generic terms, yet this bill seeks to do exactly that.
3) TM claimants need only file a complaint with the FTC to have a C&D injunction issue. No proof of wrongdoing or bad faith is needed by a claimant. Chew on that for a few minutes.
4) Extrapolating the exploit of 1-3, major corps could seek out successful competing websites and just file complaint after complaint.
I'm sure that greedy f'rs will find many ways to snatch away livelihoods.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Globofun
I went through part of the text and still do not understand where it can affect the majority of us?
I may not understand the whole problem with all this.......
They want to go after frauders........where are we frauding anything?
I feel dumb!  |