RE: [NEW ISSUE] 4103 Questionable use of Contoso Ltd in Primer

Example.com is explicitly reserved in DNS for examples like this and
cannot be registered.  That's why everybody uses it.  And what a great
idea and foresight that was on their part..

Cheers,
Dave

> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-ws-policy-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:public-ws-policy-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Fabian Ritzmann
> Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 10:05 AM
> To: Christopher B Ferris
> Cc: public-ws-policy@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [NEW ISSUE] 4103 Questionable use of Contoso Ltd 
> in Primer
> 
> 
> While example.com is a reserved domain name, isn't there 
> still a chance that somebody registers a company Example.com 
> and sues W3C for trademark infringement [1]?
> 
> Contoso is a company name registered by Microsoft:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictitious_company_names_
> used_by_Microsoft
> 
> Ideally, the W3C would register a company name for similar 
> uses in all countries where they don't want to be sued for 
> trademark or similar infringements...
> 
> Fabian
> 
> 
> Christopher B Ferris wrote:
> > http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=4103
> >
> > Title: Questionable use of fictitious corp. name "Contoso Ltd."
> >
> > Description: The Primer uses a fictitious corporation name, Contoso 
> > Ltd., throughout the Primer in its running example. It isn't clear 
> > that use of such a fictitious name, without w3c copyright/trademark 
> > ownership, is advisable.
> > Should a company be incorporated with that name, then the 
> Policy 1.5 
> > primer would be in essence providing it with free advertising... 
> > Worse, the company might sue the W3C for copyright/trademark 
> > infringement.
> >
> > Justification: see description
> >
> > Proposed Resolution: Change all occurances of "Contoso" and/or 
> > "Contoso Ltd."
> > to "Example.com" and change all "real.contoso.com" domain 
> references 
> > to "example.com".
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Christopher Ferris
> > STSM, Software Group Standards Strategy
> > email: chrisfer@us.ibm.com
> > blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/chrisferris
> > phone: +1 508 377 9295
> 
> 
> -- 
> Fabian Ritzmann
> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
> Stella Business Park             Phone +358-9-525 562 96
> Lars Sonckin kaari 12            Fax   +358-9-525 562 52
> 02600 Espoo                      Email Fabian.Ritzmann@Sun.COM
> Finland
> 
> 
>

Received on Thursday, 21 December 2006 19:37:15 UTC