Letter from WIPO to ICANN
Hello All, Please see the attached letter from WIPO to ICANN dated 15 Nov 2005. See below for plain text version. Regards, Bruce Tonkin Dear Dr Cerf, Dr Twomey I am contacting you to inquire about the status of the recommendations made by WIPO in the context of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process (WIPO-2 Recommendations) to extend protection under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to country names and the names and acronyms of International Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs). At the last WIPO General Assembly which took place in Geneva from September 26 to October 5, 2005, a number of delegations expressed concern with regard to the apparent lack of progress in the implementation of the WIPO-2 Recommendations. These delegations also requested the WIPO Secretariat to transmit this concern to ICANN. I would therefore be grateful if you could enable us to inform our member States as to how ICANN intends to proceed in this matter. As you will recall, the WIPO-2 Recommendations were transmitted to ICANN in February 2003. They were unanimously supported by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, the Working Group which you established to consider implementation issues focussed on issues other than implementation and, unlike the Working Group that developed the UDRP on the basis of WIPO's Recommendations made in the context of the First WIPO Internet Domain Name Process, failed to produce any agreed recommendations. At your request, WIPO subsequently submitted a briefing note providing further information on the issue as well as a draft confirming the (few) additions that would have to be made to the UDRP in order to implement the WIPO-2 Recommendations. The Comment Forum that you established in December 2004 failed to trigger any substantive comments from the public. You will appreciate the concerns of countries with regard to the abuse of their country's names especially in new generic Top Level Domains. Please also note the very real concerns of IGOs concerning the protection of their names and acronyms which are a vital prerequisite for them to perform their functions. If anything, the abuse of IGO names and acronyms has increased over the last years and has caused a great deal of confusion among, and outright fraud directed at, consumers. Regrettably, such abuse also targets IGOs involved in humanitarian , development and health-related activities. I hope that you will consider the issue further at your next meeting in Vancouver. My colleague Mr Christian Wichard will be attending the meeting and is available to meet with you should you so require. I look forward to hearing from you. Your sincerely, Francis Gurry Deputy Director General World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
It is good that we have finally received a clarification from WIPO, via this letter so that we are aware of the views of some governments, as described by the WIPO letter, as we consider the new gTLD policy process. We have been waiting to hear what the feedback from WIPO is, and at last, we have received at least an indication that is very useful input for consideration. I do want to be very clear that I view this issue as a gNSO policy matter and thus, I would ask that we add this to our agenda, and invite the appropriate ICANN staff for a consultation on our Monday meeting. We can then discuss how best to include this input into the consideration of the upcoming gTLD policy development process. I am not supportive of trying to "retrofit" policy onto existing/approved gTLDs, however, but can support the consideration of this issue on a going forward basis. I am not making a statement on any view, one way or the other, on the outcome of any policy development recommendation, since the issue will be before the Council. However, it seems clear to me that we must consider this issue in our PDP process. I've just returned from WSIS, and did discuss this issue with a few countries. In general, I would say that recently, it has become apparent to some countries that they are vitally interested in the issues of place names and country names in the new sponsored TLDs. This is useful feedback to the gNSO Council, who is responsible for policy development, as we look to develop further policy to govern the introduction of new gTLDs. Regards, Marilyn Cade -----Original Message----- From: owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Tonkin Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 11:48 AM To: council@gnso.icann.org Subject: [council] Letter from WIPO to ICANN Hello All, Please see the attached letter from WIPO to ICANN dated 15 Nov 2005. See below for plain text version. Regards, Bruce Tonkin Dear Dr Cerf, Dr Twomey I am contacting you to inquire about the status of the recommendations made by WIPO in the context of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process (WIPO-2 Recommendations) to extend protection under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to country names and the names and acronyms of International Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs). At the last WIPO General Assembly which took place in Geneva from September 26 to October 5, 2005, a number of delegations expressed concern with regard to the apparent lack of progress in the implementation of the WIPO-2 Recommendations. These delegations also requested the WIPO Secretariat to transmit this concern to ICANN. I would therefore be grateful if you could enable us to inform our member States as to how ICANN intends to proceed in this matter. As you will recall, the WIPO-2 Recommendations were transmitted to ICANN in February 2003. They were unanimously supported by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee on a number of occasions. Unfortunately, the Working Group which you established to consider implementation issues focussed on issues other than implementation and, unlike the Working Group that developed the UDRP on the basis of WIPO's Recommendations made in the context of the First WIPO Internet Domain Name Process, failed to produce any agreed recommendations. At your request, WIPO subsequently submitted a briefing note providing further information on the issue as well as a draft confirming the (few) additions that would have to be made to the UDRP in order to implement the WIPO-2 Recommendations. The Comment Forum that you established in December 2004 failed to trigger any substantive comments from the public. You will appreciate the concerns of countries with regard to the abuse of their country's names especially in new generic Top Level Domains. Please also note the very real concerns of IGOs concerning the protection of their names and acronyms which are a vital prerequisite for them to perform their functions. If anything, the abuse of IGO names and acronyms has increased over the last years and has caused a great deal of confusion among, and outright fraud directed at, consumers. Regrettably, such abuse also targets IGOs involved in humanitarian , development and health-related activities. I hope that you will consider the issue further at your next meeting in Vancouver. My colleague Mr Christian Wichard will be attending the meeting and is available to meet with you should you so require. I look forward to hearing from you. Your sincerely, Francis Gurry Deputy Director General World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
participants (2)
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Bruce Tonkin -
Marilyn Cade