Thanks for sharing this Alan. I'm too am no expert but sooooo many things are commonsensical if you understand and subscribe to principle. One of the recommendations is for a Globally Protected Marks List with a high threshold to entry. In context, here's an interesting formulation from the report: *"Certain categories of marks may warrant different levels of protection. For example, extremely strong globally‐recognized marks may justify a higher level of protection than lesser‐known marks; "* Um, I wonder what is the legal criteria that separates a "swoosh" from a "hemp leaf"? That Nike has loads of money to hire IP lawyers in every jurisdiction in the world but a small clothing manufacturer don't? So now, it appears these eminences would junk the principle of equal protection of the laws and give the green light to copycats, depending on the strength of cash of the mark holder? Say it ain't so! Is there a sense that a mark may become more "globally-recognized" - translate that term to mean valuable - in time? And who's counting that? I will tell you the story about a local Mom-and-Pop food shop owned by a family named McDonald and the McDonald Corporation - yes, the Ronald McDonald one - one day......... Carlton Samuels On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca>wrote:
The draft IRT report on Intellectual Property issues associated with gTLDs was released yesterday.
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-24apr09-en.htm
http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/irt-draft-report-trademark-protecti...
Note that although it is posted for a 30 day comment period, the final report is due on 24 May 2009, and comments to be considered in the drafting of the final report must be submitted by 6 May 2009 - 11 days from today.
It is clear that the IRT group has done an enormous amount of work in a very short time. I will leave it to experts in the field to comment on the appropriateness of their recommendations.
Alan