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Hi All,
I promised to write something up on the
Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy to help make it
something the challenger -- which can include a trademark
owner, company or organization -- might use.
Best, Kathy
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Individual Proposal #2 and my proposal – largely an operational fix
Purpose: For making the mandatory sunrise dispute resolution policies fully usable and ensure that challengers have access to the information needed to bring a legitimate challenge.
Registries have the right to limit Sunrise periods by date of registration (e.g., no registrations only 2 days old – I think in Round 1 trademark registrations had to be at least 2 years old) and by categories of goods and services. Challengers have the right to show that the Sunrise Period was misused for registration that do not belong.
Challengers may be trademark owners themselves, organizations or others with direct interest in that top level domain (e.g., it may be a noncommercial top level domain). As noted in Individual Proposal #2 – The Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policies were premised on the openness off the TMCH database and the ability to review and then challenge trademark owners who misuse the Sunrise. SDRPs cannot serve the purpose for which they were created if third parties cannot review the TMCH entries (as original rules allowed)
To bring a Sunrise Challenge, you need to be able to know the information registered in the TMCH – just for that particular mark – including country of registration, registration number, registration date, description of good and services – or a mark protected by statute or treaty and in what country.
Accordingly, a surgical change seems warranted. Allow a party associated with a business, organization or individual having the same or similar name to the domain name registered during the Sunrise Period [or an association or organization representing its members or affiliates which include that business, organization or individual with the same or similar name], or someone with strong proof of inaccuracy during Sunrise registrations, to bring to the Trademark Clearinghouse a request for data of a single, specific mark.
The submission shall state the mark in question, the registration domain name involved, and a good faith reason why the domain name may not have been entitled to registration during the Sunrise Period. The Clearinghouse will then provide the mark's (or marks') recordals including: country of registration, registration number, registration date, description of good and services, or basis of the mark(s) being protected by statute or treaty/country.
The TMCH will provided this information within a short period of time, e.g., 3 business days, to allow the filer to proceed forward with a Sunrise Challenge if warranted (as this is a tight timeline).
Please reference Individual Proposal #2 for additional fields.