Excuse again my ignorance, but is the legislation under 18 U.S.C. § 981(b)(2), which provides a legal framework for property seizures by the government, not general enough to allow for the seizure of a TLD if it is considered as an asset or property being used for committing crimes that may be prosecuted in the US?

Let’s say a ccTLD or a gTLD evolve in a way that they may be considered under that act as such asset/property – could it not be seized with the fact that they are registered under ICANN’s root being a sufficient connection?

Thanks for any specific hint and regards

Jorge

 

Von: ws2-jurisdiction-bounces@icann.org [mailto:ws2-jurisdiction-bounces@icann.org] Im Auftrag von Mueller, Milton L
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 24. August 2017 16:39
An: ws2-jurisdiction@icann.org
Betreff: Re: [Ws2-jurisdiction] [EXTERNAL] Re: ISSUE: In rem Jurisdiction over ccTLDs

 

Yes, Becky this is correct, ACPA is an anti-cybersquatting law for trademark protection and was written with second-level domains in mind.

I guess it is possible that a gTLD would be subject to ACPA – but if and only if someone managed to cybersquat a trademark in the TLD level. And since ICANN’s TLD awarding process is so heavily biased toward trademark owners, it is unlikely that a TM-violating TLD (say, giving .IBM to Parminder) would ever happen. But if it did, I supposed it could be applied. I can’t see how it could ever be applied to a ccTLD.

 

From: ws2-jurisdiction-bounces@icann.org [mailto:ws2-jurisdiction-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Burr, Becky via Ws2-jurisdiction
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 7:02 PM
To: Jorge.Cancio@bakom.admin.ch; jordan@internetnz.net.nz; thiago.jardim@itamaraty.gov.br; ws2-jurisdiction@icann.org
Subject: Re: [Ws2-jurisdiction] [EXTERNAL] Re: ISSUE: In rem Jurisdiction over ccTLDs

 

Fwiw, to the extent that US courts have in rem jurisdiction over domain names, my recollection is that is a function of very specific anti-squatting trademark law and is extremely unlikely to apply to ccTLDs.

 

J. Beckwith Burr
Neustar, Inc. / Deputy General Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer
1775 Pennsylvania Avenue NW DC 20006

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