Quoting Charlie McCormack on Wednesday July 19, 2006:
| Agreed, but do they have a right to issue me a license to a trademark I
| already own? I think not, and to restrict me from selling my trademark
| *could* be a spot of trouble for them.

Of course they do. A trademark is a defensive right that allows a
trademark holder to prevent other parties from passing off using the
same distinctive properties of the trademark in a specific field of
endeavour. It does not entitle the trademark holder automatic ownership
rights to anything with the trademark in it.

| Sure they can charge me a fee to manage the DNS record in the main root, but
| they have no rights to enforce restrictions on a trademark I own.

I can allow people to pay me to tattoo words on my forehead. It doesn't
mean Coca-Cola has an automatic right to insist they get their logo up
there because they have a trademark. It does however allow them to
insist I don't sell a beverage by the name of Coca-Cola.

Just because a trademark holder has special rights in terms of
exclusivity of using a mark doesn't change any of the other restrictions
that exist.

kim