01/03/2002 You can help thwart Internet Carpetbaggers* by helping Chip Rosenthal save.unicom.com. Because he's a real core geek, Rosenthal registered the unicom.com domain name in 1990. That's right 9-0 (that's before the big bang in web time) and now a 5-year-old, slimy-come-lately Unicom, Inc. wants to jump his claim.

The California corporation, which went through the costly process to trademark the unicom name in 1997, has attempted to purchase the domain from Rosenthal, but when he wasn't taking, they decided to rough him up a little in U.S. District Court. They are suing him — for among other things, the rights to his domain name — under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999. (What?! See Rosenthal's lawyer's take on this absurdity in her letter to Unicom, Inc.)

Why is this important? Because a trademark is not a license to cherry-pick the identities of legitimate small publishers — who obeyed the law when they purchased their domain names and continue to obey the law today. And because trademark law needs sound precedent to drag it out of the 18th century. And because we really don't want Disney and Microsoft owning http://everything.

How you can help: Visit Rosenthal's cool website and learn more about the issue, drop a little change on his legal defense team and leave a message of support in his guestbook.

In my book, this guy is fighting the good fight for all of us — especially the ones who got in early — and he deserves all the help he can get. Spread the word. [*special thanks to boingboing for the "Internet Carpetbagger" terminology]

BTW: Dialed a telephone number lately? You broke international intellectual property law.