THE EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH OF THE LANHAM ACT OVER TRADEMARKS ON THE INTERNET: ADAPTING THE LANHAM ACT TO GLOBAL E-COMMERCE OR AN UNJUSTIFIED EXTENSION OF US LAWS?

摘要

As Yahoo! celebrates its 10th anniversary, it is fair to say that the Internet has now been in the public domain for more than 10 years. Although new laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, have been created to help govern cyberspace, internet trademark law has been slow to adapt, especially in the international context. Since the Paris Convention of 1883, trademark law has traditionally been territorial, meaning that each country promulgates and enforces its own trademark laws. But in an era of globalization and e-commerce US courts, in an effort to protect US plaintiffs, may be improperly extending the Lanham Act over foreign defendants using trademarks on the Internet. In today's world, any unjustified extraterritorial application of national laws may run into trouble with international legal principles.