At 11/12/2009 12:10 AM, James Seng wrote:

My apologies for not able to attend the call. I tried to stay up for it but was really tired out after my flight to Taiwan for TWNIC annual meeting.

I support the principle that "Brand owners want to be able to have clear right-of-first-refusal to reduce opportunities for cyber-squatting and to reduce the need for URS and UDRP proceedings." and I agree that it is in the interest of the at-large users.

The devils is in the detail however. I am concern about over reaching their rights, by extension into combination of their trademark with generic words.

Indeed, and that is why we have said that there must be tight restrictions on such use and penalties for abuse. But note that this is only with regard to pre-launch sunrise registrations which give the brand owner a right of first refusal. The moment after launch, they are free to acquire those names unless someone else gets there first. Also note that according to the base report, a registry will have the right to include such combinations if it wishes. What the minority opinion adds is that all registries should allow it, in theory, reducing the amount of cyber-squatting, user confusion and the need to file UDRPs and URSs. But your point is exactly the focus of the question. Will the benefits as noted above, be overshadowed by TM holders successfully gaming the system?

I can also understand multi-national trademarks, that I would assumed would cover most famous mark. However, I am not sure how national TM is going to apply. Do you mean as a TM owner in China, I have rights of refusal for a TLD (say .sydney) that primary market is in Australia?

In this context, a "multinational" trademark is a registered trademark issued to cover more than one country. Examples are a Benelux TM which covers Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and Community Trade Mark (CTM) which is valid across the European Union. Regarding a .sydney TLD, the registry will have the right to restrict which trademarks that it allows in its sunrise and in this case might restrict based on geographic area - See item 5.2 (ii) Alan

-James Seng