*Evan,* *as this thing is taking on indecent proportions, it's time to use words with a stronger content. In our future comments on so-called "protection" of trademarks, why not use "domain name hoarding", instead of just "squatting" which has now become almost innocuous?* *JJS.* 2013/3/27 Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org>
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Robin Gross <robin@ipjustice.org> Date: 27 March 2013 01:15 Subject: Actually ICANN is creating new rights for THOUSANDS of derivations of a big brand TM, not 50 like staff claims in the large print. It is TM+50 derivations of each trademark label in the small print To: NCSG-DISCUSS@listserv.syr.edu
It was revealed today during ICANN's new gtld webinar that ICANN is in fact creating rights to much more than the TM+50 derivations of that mark in its trademark clearinghouse. The fine print of this new right reads closer to "trademark + 50 derivations of that mark *for each trademark label".*
So for example, for big brand companies like Apple, who will have a trademark registration in 30 countries for the word IPOD, ICANN will be assigning each of those separate registrations for the same trademark a new "trademark label", and *each trademark label* will be allowed to block registrations of the trademark +50 derivations.
So in the Apple/IPOD example, Apple will be able block registrations for the TM + 1500 derivations of that mark (30 countries x 50 derivations = 1500). And ICANN staff confirmed that this is how staff's policy is designed to work on the webinar today.
So this very practical example shows how half-baked staff's proposal truly is. Had the community ever been allowed to develop this proposal, these little "oopsies" could have been avoided. Of course it isn't an "oopsy" for the TM lobbyists who created the proposal - its a gigantic windfall of rights that exist no where in law, obtained no community consensus, and chill the speech of thousands of other lawful uses of a word.
This very important distinction between a trademark and trademark label shows how big brands will in fact be able to block thousands of unrelated, lawful expression in the DNS. But ICANN promised that it won't be creating new rights with its policies, so I guess we don't have to worry and should trust them....
Sigh, Robin
IP JUSTICE Robin Gross, Executive Director 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451 w: http://www.ipjustice.org e: robin@ipjustice.org
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto Canada
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