David Weslow Weighs in with Bloomberg BNA on Key Online Law Issues for 2013

David E. Weslow, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Intellectual Property Practice, was among leading attorneys asked to weigh in with Bloomberg BNA on areas of online law that are likely to be most important to their practices this year. The publication had asked respondents to submit short insights for the January 4 article, similar to “tweets.”

Mr. Weslow’s predictions focused in part on hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) may start approving this year. The Internet’s current address system includes 22 generic domain-name extensions, such as .com and .net. ICANN is reviewing over 1,000 applications for new gTLDs, such as .art and .book.

New gTLDs will force trademark (TM) owners “to adapt strategies for online TM protection” from bad actors that may seek to mimic their brands, websites or products, Mr. Weslow told Bloomberg BNA. Relying on “volumes” of cease-and-desist letters and defensive domain name registrations “is not a viable strategy,” he said.

Mr. Weslow added that “claims by TM owners against domain registry operators are likely to increase due to registry business models and ancillary service offerings.”

He also noted that “copyright troll actions related to file-sharing continue to present challenges to courts, but a uniformity of rulings may begin to emerge in 2013.”