Trademarks Brands and the Internet is published by: Newton Media Limited Kingfisher House, 21-23 Elmfield Road Bromley, BR11LT, United Kingdom +44 203 301 8200


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Trademarks Brands and the Internet (TB&I):


ISSN 2049-2359 (Print)


EDITOR’S NOTE An unknown quantity


Kim Dotcom has a lot on his plate. Depending on where you sit, he is either an Internet entrepreneur with a love of flamboyant gestures and individual freedoms, or he’s a cybercriminal whose Megaupload site facilitated and even encouraged massive quantities of digital piracy. At the moment, he’s fighting extradition from New Zealand (where he has citizenship) to the US to face charges related to copyright infringement, piracy and racketeering.


But while Dotcom’s legal battles continue, they don’t seem to have distracted him from his business ventures. Megaupload was shut down in January 2012 aſter charges were filed against Dotcom in the US and he was arrested, but on the anniversary of the closure, he announced the launch of Mega. Te new site aims to sidestep some of the copyright issues that Megaupload struggled with (not very hard, some would say), by focusing on user privacy and keeping the things that users upload to the site invisible from users who don’t have a decryption key and, most importantly, from the site’s administrators.


Tis may sound like a flimsy way around the central issue of facilitating/encouraging piracy, but for now, the site is up and running with a growing user base.


In this issue, we interview Mega’s chief executive, Vikram Kumar, about the site’s aims, Dotcom’s extradition fight, copyright law and Internet openness.


Meanwhile, in the UK, the government is looking to introduce changes to the copyright law, designed to take account of the developing digital environment and some of the particular challenges it poses. We take a look at the proposed changes, and canvass opinion from lawyers and campaigners about their likely impact.


With the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers about to hold its latest meeting, in Beijing, the clock has almost ticked down to the launch of the first new generic top-level domains. We hear some tips on how and when to protect trademarks in the new system. Brands that don’t think about this early enough could find themselves storing up problems for the future.


It’s conference season and we, like many of you, will be attending the International Trademark Association meeting in Dallas, May 4 to 8. If you are in town, please do drop by booths 126 and 128 to say hello.


Peter Scott, Managing editor EDITORIAL PANEL


Ben Allgrove, partner, Baker & McKenzie Safir Anand, senior partner, Anand & Anand Andy Churley, group marketing director, Netnames Annick Mottet Haugaard, president, European Communities Trade Mark Association Gretchen Olive, policy & industry affairs, CSC Global Susan Prosser, vice president, partner & industry relations, Domain Tools Maggie Ramage, immediate past-president, Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys Petter Rindforth, partner, Fenix Legal David Taylor, partner, Hogan Lovells Jonathan Zuck, president, Association for Competitive Technology


www.worldipreview.com Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 2 3


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