IP: World Body Proposes Outlawing 'Cybersquatting' on Internet Addresses

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

World Body Proposes Outlawing 'Cybersquatting' on Internet Addresses
By JERI CLAUSING []

[]
WASHINGTON -- The much-maligned practice of "cybersquatting" -- the speculating and pirating of potentially valuable Internet addresses -- would effectively be outlawed and the owners of famous trademarks could claim first rights to Internet domains bearing their names under recommendations issued Friday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). 

The report to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the first attempt by any official governing body to draft an international set of rules for registering domain names. It was requested by the Clinton Administration last year when it handed oversight of the Internet's addressing system to ICANN, an international nonprofit corporation. 

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/05/cyber/articles/01domain.html