"Chutes and Ladders" is a children's board game. Could you develop a Web site about antique fire engines, using the domain name "chutesnladders.com?" Not without invoking the ire of Hasbro, the trademark owner, and the U.S. courts. You can read about recent domain name legal cases in "Domain Name Disputes: The Recent Court Decisions" at www.educause.edu/pub/er/review/
reviewArticles/32306.html. "Internet Domain Names and Trademark Laws" at www.ior.com/~malhotra/
domain.html provides a clear summary of how trademark law applies to the use of domain names. The paper "The Domain Name Versus Trademark Dilemma" at www.intellecprop.mpg.de/Online-Publikationen/
Kur-DomainNamevsTrademarkDilemma.htm summarizes some of the history of domain name and trademark disputes, discusses some of the international issues at play, and describes several proposals for resolving some of the problems. You can learn all about the process of domain name selection, registration, buying, and selling at Domain Name News and Information, www.igoldrush.com.