# trademark of names of naming authorities

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Tue, 17 May 1994 14:29:51 PDT

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    To: uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: trademark of names of naming authorities

    From: Larry Masinter <masinter@parc.xerox.com>

    Message-Id: <94May17.142953pdt.2760@golden.parc.xerox.com>

    Date: 	Tue, 17 May 1994 14:29:51 PDT

I've been worried for some time about possible difficulties if a URN
scheme is chosen that relies on DNS names, partly because of the issue
of trademark registration. Currently, for example, Adam Curry is being
asked to no longer use the name 'mtv.com'. Now, suppose that Adam has
used a URN instead of a URL for
http://www.mtv.com/misc/I-quit.html

and has called it

urn:mtv.com/I-quit

Now, suppose that MTV wins their suit, and prevents Adam Curry from
using 'mtv' for commercial purposes. Would Adam Curry have to go out
and get a new URN?

This isn't so much of a problem for DNS names, since DNS names are
not guaranteed to be persistent over all time or even unique over
time.

However, isn't it a problem for URNs?

A second (but less serious problem) might be people using obscenities
in the names of their documents. For example, might there be some
libraries that can't even say "Sorry, we don't have
urn:obscene.org/f**k.y*u"?

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