How are North American interests different from those in other regions in this regard? I guess much depends on whether one considers .com, .org and .net to be American by context or simply by ownership.
Due to the peculiar history of the .US domain which until recently required all registrations to include a city and state in the name, most registrants in the U.S. have used .COM, .ORG, and .NET rather than .US. I don't think there's any other country where this happened.
(If the changes help to get commercial squatters out of .org and ,net, count me in.
No chance, all the rules about who can register in .com, .org. and .net were repealed years ago.
Of course, WIPO may see things differently. ;-)
Indeed. They insist on claiming that domain names and trademarks are the same thing. R's, John