Trademark representatives never give up. They are like a dog with a bone, and the only time they are silent is if they have their way 100 per cent.
Originally decrying ICANN's proposal of new gTLDs as the end of the
world, the International Trademark Association (INTA) seems to now
accept they will happen. But INTA continues to wrestle with the gTLD
bone in ensuring that when they are introduced, they have their way with
trademark protection.
The latest salvo from INTA is a letter to Peter Dengate Thrush and Rod
Beckstrom, ICANN's chair and CEO/president respectively, saying they
support "ICANN's identification of trademark protection and an analysis
of economic impact as two of the overarching issues that must be
resolved before any new gTLDs are introduced."
INTA believes "the resolution of these overarching issues is central to
the objective of ensuring consumers are adequately protected and
registrants and internet users are not disparately impacted by the
introduction of new gTLDs."
The letter goes on to say INTA "applaud[s] the recommendation set forth
in ICANN's recently commissioned economic report, 'An Economic Framework
for the Analysis of the Expansion of Generic Top-Level Domain Names,'
to conduct a study to assess the harms associated with intellectual
property abuse and related forms of consumer fraud in the domain name
system, including how the current gTLDs have affected intellectual
property and consumers since their introduction. Indeed trademark owners
believe that such a study is not only a sensible recommendation, but an
essential prerequisite before any rollout of new gTLDs."
INTA kindly offers to assist ICANN "with the preparation and completion
of such a study". No doubt it never occurred to them that they would
like to ensure their views were taken into account!
However ICANN seem to be saying that the IP lawyers have had their say,
with Dengate Thrush saying at the recent Internet Governance Forum in
Vilnius that they:
have had their chance to make all of their cases in their five-year
process and the intellectual property protection brought in place is
with a delicate balance with everyone in the community not just with IP
lawyers IP lawyers always want more protection IP lawyers always want
their brands to be stronger I'm one myself I'm a specialist IP lawyer.
What we have had to do is balance the interest of the IP lawyers against
all of the other constituencies free speech if you don't want these
things people who say that each of the brands in TLDs do not equate to
brands that there are other elements and other values. So there's a lot
of debate that's gone into this it's not just simply somebody saying:
Let's do it over. Let's do everything in a hurry it's taken five years
and resolved with a lot of compromised discussions of which the IP
lawyers have been a huge part so just some comments from me.
The letter to ICANN from Heather Steinmeyer, President of the International Trademark Association is on the ICANN website at:
icann.org/correspondence/steinmeyer-to-dengate-thrush-08sep10-en.pdf
The transcript of the "NewgGTLDs and IDNs for Development Importance and
Obstacles" session at the IGF in Vilnius is available from:
www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/content/article/102-transcripts2010/634-61