From: Paul Keating <paul@law.es> Date: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 2:10 PM To: Mary Wong <mary.wong@icann.org> Cc: Phil Corwin <psc@vlaw-dc.com> Subject: Suggestions and revisions to proposed letter
Dear Mary and Phil,
Thank you for sending out the original. It obviously shows a great deal of work. Please do not consider my suggestions as an affront to the hard work that went into the original draft.
Attached please find my suggested revisions to the proposed letter seeking legal advice. In most cases I was attempting to provide more specificity and avoid any expression pif opinion other than the historical consensus of the WG. For example, we have no direct communications from IGOs regarding this issue. Instead we are relying entirely upon what ICANN has told us that they have said to the GAC.
In other matters, I have imbedded several comments but not in each instance.
For example, I removed much of the part about the Ter-6 process. First, under the UDRP/URS, a complainant need only show a trademark in 1 jurisdiction. Thus it is not relevant that the US, for example, may not recognize an IGO trademark it is sufficient if one Convention signatory does. Second, the process by which WIPO notifies, etc is not really germane to the immunity issue.
I have also removed the language referencing any "appeal" as the UDRP has no such mechanism and the "appeal" process in the URS is purely internal in nature and is not relevant to the issue of litigation immunity.
I have also removed the language referencing post-UDRP litigation as rare. This should not enter into the scope of our assessment.
As to the questions, I had some major issues in that they seemed to be extremely leading in nature and structured in a way that would encourage "book writing" and not the more pointed advice we are seeking.
The attached is redlined and the specific changes can be seen by altering the presentation format of the document. I would appreciate your circulating this among the WG members.
There are lots of suggested changes and I hope it is not all overboard. I am reminded of the joke that given the Bible and a red pen, any lawyer will make changes.
Sincerely,
Paul Raynor Keating, Esq.
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