Phonewords, trade marks, and domain names: a complex matrix of rights

摘要

Legal context In 2004 the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) began auctioning smartnumbers®, being freephone and local rate telephone numbers. Desirable (and hence valuable) smartnumbers® are those that “translate” to a “phoneword” (e.g. 13 2287 translates to 13 CATS when the numbers are mapped to the letters on a telephone keypad).