Hello Renata

You have raised some interesting wrinkles.  The first is we mustn’t conflate the application for a domain name with intellectual property rights.  My IP lawyer friends will have different views I am sure, but, a new top level domain can exist quite happily alongside any array of IP rights which may exist at the top level of the domain name system and at the second level in domain name registrations.  For example, to use Jeff’s idea from this morning, .mars can exist alongside www.mars.com alongside www.marstheplanet.com and Jacqueline Mars (the woman whose family the company is named after).  The issue is to be sure that consumers are not confused and that bad faith use is not allowed…

And to your second point, communities are not disadvantaged if they don’t apply for a domain name.  Let’s use Murrumbidgee as the example.  It may be that a community or group or geographic area are not interested and find different ways of expressing themselves on-line.  That is fine.  What isn’t fine is if they are constrained BEFORE they have even have a chance to decide.  It is always annoying and expensive and time consuming if there is contention for a name…that is why there must be simple mechanisms to resolve that contention.

And to your last point.  I think this issue is directly within scope for the consideration of this group.  Governments have responsibilities around the setting of and implementation of public policy in their jurisdictions.  However, in the context of new top level domain policy processes, government stakeholders are part of a much broader constellation of people whose views need to be considered…and we don’t need an international treaty for that to happen.  

I hope that we can talk about this area in much more detail within the group.

Best wishes.

Liz

….
Dr Liz Williams | International Affairs
.au Domain Administration Ltd
M: +61 436 020 595 | +44 7824 877757
E: liz.williams@auda.org.au www.auda.org.au
 
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On 19 Apr 2018, at 11:16 am, Renata Aquino Ribeiro <raquino@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Liz

This is a very important discussion and thanks for framing it simply.
I am guessing the issue about the Aboriginal community being able to
register the name is whether or not they will be competing against
another company who trademarked that name and who could possibly sue
them.
And maybe they don't even register the domain name but create a
handcraft company with the river name.
In that sense, it is not about limiting the registration of a name but
ensuring protection for communities which are left vulnerable if
exclusive registration rights and associated IP rights are given to
whoever first registers the name.

But this is probably out of the scope of WT5 since it deals with
governmental objections and not unrecognized minority communities or
treaties without a broader international intergovernmental acceptance.

Best,

Renata


On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 9:49 PM, Liz Williams <liz.williams@auda.org.au> wrote:

Hello everyone

I wanted to refer back to our call this morning (Australia time) to provide
some more examples about the nature of generic words that are also used for
important geographic terms.  I used three examples this morning which relate
to our major river systems which is not dissimilar to the Amazon River
example where the rivers flow through different states.  In my example, the
Murray, Darling & Murrumbidgee rivers are all significant geographic
features.  The first two are named after people; the third an Aboriginal
word in the Wiradjuri language.  The Murrumbidgee River flows through
several distinct areas of Aboriginal land and forms part of the Murray River
system.

We could extend the analysis by including Mount Kosciuszko National Park
which includes our highest mountain (and from which the Murrumbidgee flows.)
Again, named after a real person (whose name likely doesn’t fit as a good
TLD label!) but, nonetheless, is one of our most significant geographic
identifiers.

IF we were to conclude that a broader bucket of geographic identifiers (like
rivers and places) were to somehow be constrained/limited/banned what
purpose would that serve?  For example, if the Aboriginal communities that
live along the river and identify with that region, why wouldn’t they be
welcome to apply for the name?  The same could be said of landowners (like I
was), tourist enterprises, naturalists, national parks, might also want to
create a new “community” top level domain that they can use.  The same could
be said of the Murray/Darling examples.

There are many many other examples that this group could come up with which
shows the way in which humans name geographic features that are intrinsic
parts of their culture.  From my personal perspective expanding any
limitations on what applicants can apply for is a negative idea.  Instead,
we need to work towards enabling the expansion of the domain name space to
suit end users.

And most importantly, we need simple steps (I think we need some schematic
to show how this could work in practical evaluation) to understand how to
deal with contention and to resolve that contention efficiently and fairly.

Liz
….
Dr Liz Williams | International Affairs
.au Domain Administration Ltd
M: +61 436 020 595 | +44 7824 877757
E: liz.williams@auda.org.au www.auda.org.au

Important Notice
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legal privilege, and is intended for the use of the named addressee only. If
you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or copy any
part of this email. If you have received this email by mistake, please
notify the sender and delete this message immediately.


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