Problems of legal Nature of Internet Domain Names
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Abstract
The article consists of four parts. The first part provides a brief description of the Internet and Domain Name System (DNS). The author outlines the main principles of the functioning of the DNS. The second part of the article presents a research on the definition of a domain name. Technical and social definitions of a domain name are clarified and separated. The legal nature of domain names is analysed in the third part of the article. The research is concentrated on the question whether domain names are a property. The case law of the US and German courts as well as that of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is analysed. Various approaches of different researchers are summarized. Finally, in the fourth part of the article, the author considers a possibility of recognizing domain names as the sui generis industrial property.
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Section
Articles
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