The International Olympic Committee has written to ICANN stating its unhappiness with the new generic Top Level Domain process saying they "uniformly request - in the event that ICANN does proceed to launch an unlimited number of new gTLDs - that the Olympic trademarks, including OLYMPIC and OLYMPIAD, be placed on the reserved names list."
In their opening paragraph the IOC also note they have "submitted eleven
public comments to ICANN opposing its new gTLD program" and to date had
not received a response.
And if the IOC does not get what it wants, they say they "are prepared
to employ all available legislative, regulatory, administrative and
judicial mechanisms to hold ICANN accountable for damage caused to the
Olympic Movement."
If the IOC had taken an interest in the process it would have
undoubtedly realised that responding to every submission would be
difficult and time consuming. But the IOC has form in being demanding.
The IOC also notes they request - at least they did not say they
"require" - "adequate rights protection measures necessary to quell an
expected unprecedented level of cybersquatting and trademark
infringement". They are also grumpy these issues have been "relegated to
consideration by the GNSO who they describe as having "no motivation to
support effective trademark protection mechanisms and who actively aim
to reduce accountability for intermediaries and legitimize
cybersquatting."
The four page letter then waffles on with its usual list of complaints,
expanding on the points above. They also claim the trademark clearing
house is not an effective means of dealing with trademark infringements
for them as the clearinghouse will only deal with "marks under existing
treaties" that "undult discriminates against future Olympic Games, host
cities and corresponding trademark rights."
The full text of the most recent letter to ICANN from the IOC is available at:
forum.icann.org/lists/5gtld-guide/pdfsTERbi7N96.pdf