David Weslow Discusses TPP Agreement’s Trademark and Domain Name Provisions

November 10, 2015

David E. Weslow, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Intellectual Property Practice, was quoted by Bloomberg BNA’s Intellectual Property Law Resource Center in a November 5 article about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement’s mandatory trademark and domain name provisions.

The agreement requires signatory countries to enact anticybersquatting remedies to protect trademark holders against the registration or use of domain names that are identical or similar to their marks with bad faith intent to profit, according to the article. The requirements mimic the language of the U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).

The cybersquatting rules in the TPP agreement will provide more uniformity and certainty for trademark holders and domain name registrants, Mr. Weslow told Bloomberg BNA.

“Broadly speaking, most countries do not have specific anticybersquatting laws similar to the ACPA. Rather, more often than not, such claims are brought under traditional trademark infringement laws,” he said. “The requirement for adoption of an ACPA-like standard of ‘bad faith intent to profit’ should be welcomed by all sides as providing a basis for more consistent rulings.”