Budagova, M.M. Confl ict in the interaction of domain name and trademark in the Russian Federation

Abstract: The object of studies in this article regards the conflict in the interaction of domain name and trademark, as two elements identifying goods or services. The goal of the article is to analyze the conflict in the interaction of domain name and trademark, to compare the terms “trade mark” and “domain name” , their role in the civil legislation of the Russian Federation, interrelation, and to formulate propositions for the improvement of civil legislation of the Russian Federation. The methods used for writing this article include the following: general scientific methods, and specific scientific methods, such as dialectic, legal logical methods, and comparative legal method. The results of the research show that it is necessary to recognize domain names as copyright protected objects in order to provide them with due protection and to avoid constant violations from bad faith domain businessmen. It is found out that the relations between the trademark and domain names include external and internal conflicts. The external conflicts include competition between the trademark and the domain name as identifying elements, and the internal conflicts include repetition or copying of trademark, confusion in terminology, which leads to claims in court. The results of the study may be applied for the amendment of the Russian legislation in order to guarantee rational use of rights to domain names. The conclusions provide that there is need to amend the Civil Code of the Russian Federation with a number of articles, or issue a normative legal act, which would regulate the legal relations regarding domain names. The author offers the following concept of such a legal act: definition of a domain name, procedure of its registration, rights and obligations of the domain name administrator, rights and obligations of domain name registering authority, interaction with trademarks and place of origin of goods, linguistic expertise of domain name, termination of rights to a domain name.

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