Impact on North American Business: The ICANN Staff Issues Report states: "The protection of IGO names and abbreviations may be addressed in the new gTLD process, with an objections-based approach for strings at the top-level...", and "If developed by staff for new gTLDs, a follow-up PDP would be necessary to apply the DRP to existing gTLDs." One issue is how existing gTLDs would be impacted at the top level (and how such an impact would affect North American business). The issue may be clarified somewhat by recourse to WIPO Circular 0645 which details protected abbreviations for the IGO we know as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This IGO has also deemed it necessary to protect their abbreviation in other official UN languages including one which renders their name as BANK FÜR INTERNATIONALEN ZAHLUNGSAUSGLEICH. The abbreviation they accordingly seek to protect is BIZ (which also happens to be an existing gTLD operated by NeuLevel, a North American registry operation). Applying a DRP to existing top level domains would certainly pose a challenge as a conflict already exists between an ICANN gTLD and an abbreviation protected under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention (that seeks additional enhanced protections). ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/222