For your information. The Board letter can be found at http://gnso.icann.org/correspondence/beckstrom-to-gnso-council-12oct09-en.pd.... I have since had at least one confirmation that my questions were appropriate. Alan
From: Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca> To: GNSO STI <gnso-sti@icann.org> Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 18:58:21 -0500 Subject: [gnso-sti] Questions regarding the Board letter
On reviewing the list of Clearinghouse questions in the Board letter, I have a few questions of my own. Perhaps my lack of training or experience with domain IP issues is showing, and if so, I humbly apologize.
Q.1 Impact of a clearinghouse notice on a registrant: is there a potential chilling effect on registrations if a Trademark holder contacts a registrant before the registration is made?
I understand the concept of potential chilling effect of receiving the IP Claims notices when trying to register a domain. But under the staff proposals (without the GMPL), I was not aware of any notice to trade-mark holders PRIOR to registration. The staff proposal explicitly says that such notice must not go out before the registration is effective so that it does not give the TM owner the ability to preemptively register or otherwise block an otherwise legitimate domain name. What am I missing?
Q.4 Should the Clearinghouse requirements (including the choice of IP Claims or Sunrise processes) be applied to existing registries?
In the staff proposals, the IP Clearing house is only for use pre-launch, and Sunrise processes are associated with new domains. So how could either be applicable to the existing registries?
Alan