Beware the German Domain Rule

CK - Washington.   In the dim ages of the Internet, trademark law and domain law were two separate branches of the law. Trademark law addressed priorities and the domestic, territorial nexus of vendor and goods or services. Domain law resolved issues of a global first come, first served addressing system for web and other Internet techniques. Trademark lawyers didn't understand the domain name system and began to apply trademark law to it, then prevailed on legislators to outlaw the first come, first served foundation of domain law. Germany and the United States went parallel paths in that evolution. Now, a German court vigorously pedales ahead of the peleton by applying German trademark law extraterritorially. It tells a Gulf state corporation to use .ae domains, not .com domains. Its .com domain would indicate commercial activity. Its commercial activity is noticeable in Germany. In Germany, there is a trademark owner with a mark akin to the domain name. The .com domain violates the trademark in Germany, a .ae domain would not. The Düsseldorf Court of Appeals sticks its neck pretty far out. Germany tends to complain of American adventures into the extraterrorial application of laws. In its ruling 1-20 U 93/07 of April 22, 2008, the German court does not do only that but gratuitously volunteers a redefinition of domain extensions. Certainly, .com has always been understood to cover any use that is not .mil, .gov, .edu and to some extent .net and .org, although the latter two went through evolutions where they now allow for any use. Generally, .com has not been understood as principally representing global commercial a…