On Fri, 31 Oct 2003, at 13:31 [=GMT-0500], Harold Feld wrote:

> Has anyone surveyed business interests outside the business
> consticuency?  Over the years, I have heard complaints from businesses
> about how the nature of WHOIS creates problems for those seeking to
> register new product names or merger-related names.  Since this is
> financially sensitive information, businesses want to keep the
> information of registration proprietary (apparently, it is a big deal if
> you notice that drug company X has registered "blah-o-cide.com" because
> it signals that blah-o-cide is close to FDA approval, or some such).  My
> understanding is that they use various dummies and holding corps to get
> around this.  Has anyone done any research in this area?

I don't mean to be rude. But I think this is the type of problems the
pharmaceutical industry, with their multi billion $$ revuenues, will
find a solution for without our help. I doubt we can enlist them as
our allies, since they are trying to claim rights over names via the
WIPO II process. Let them solve their problems.