Irish law unsettled on digital trademarks

Irish law does little to ensure that company trademarks and patents are protected in the digital realm, says Dublin patent and trademark lawyer, Mr Niall Rooney. "It has to be said, the law is quite unsettled it's a case-bycase basis."

Anxious to distinguish trademark rights (a company name, logo or trading style) from copyright (which covers "creative" intellectual property) he says: "The whole territorial nature of the Net has made it very difficult for us to control trademark." With Website creation packages cheaply available, everyone on the Net is a potential publisher, he says, and can infringe a company's trademark.

Trademark abuses include computer users making derogatory statements about a company or product, passing themselves off as a company, or masking their virtual appearance so someone cannot tell who they actually are.

Then, there are "cyber-squatters" and "warehousers" who register domain names that companies might want to use and then try to sell the name for thousands of pounds.

Irish companies have been confronted with all of these problems, Mr Rooney says. Despite some high-profile cases in the US and Britain which have decided against those who try to sell on domain names, he notes that there is no case law in this area in Ireland.

"Everyone always gives the example of a famous name. But most of our clients aren't famous names," he says. Cases abroad have been decided at a low jurisdiction level. In addition, domain name disputes often involve names which have been registered in other markets. Holding the "www.yourcompany.ie" domain doesn't promise you the rights to "www.yourcompany.co.uk".

To create the strongest legal protection for company trademarks on the Web, Mr Rooney advises organisations to assess their intellectual property and the markets in which they are active or intend to become active. Then, he says, they should register the company name as a trademark.