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To: Rob S. who wrote (40472)	2/17/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: Randy Ellingson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

I think we will see a lot of new precedent being set in the courts in regards to the ownership of brand names. There is a real threat to branded products that the Internet will be a vehicle that dilutes the value of advertising and traditional branding strategies to such an extent that it renders the billions of expenditures worth much less. I'm no attorney (really), but it seems that the search engines have every right to public-domain information. If a search engine wants to publish a directory of all freely-available web sites, or a directory of businesses, then for a company to "whine" that the search engine can be clever enough to profit from their compilation of information seems meritless (legally). It is the person searching who inputs the original brand name afterall. Who's to say the brand giants won't simply pay a penny more to have their ads shown (rather than the upstart competitor's ad)? Randy