[ncdnhc-discuss] Draft Names Council resolution on the reservation of geographical and geopolitical names October 2001 (amended)

[Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law]

Where's the bit about releasing the names and not doing this again?

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Nilda Vany Martinez Grajales wrote:

> Dear NC fellows:
> 
> Please find below the amended proposal of the draft Names Council
> Resolution on the reservation of geographical and geopolitical names
> 
> As Always comments are welcome.
> 
> Best Regards
> Vany
> 
> 
> Draft Names Council resolution on the reservation of geographical and
> geopolitical names October 2001 v4
> 
> Whereas,
> in a communiqué made by the Government Advisory Council (GAC) at its
> Montevideo meeting
> http://www.icann.org/committees/gac/communique-09sep01.htm "the GAC
> recommends that the names of countries and distinct economies,
> particularly those contained in the ISO 3166-1 standard, as applied by
> ICANN in identifying ccTLDs, should be reserved by the .info Registry,
> (or if registered in the Sunrise Period challenged by the Registry and,
> if successful, then reserved) in Latin characters in their official
> language(s) and in English and assigned to the corresponding governments
> and public authorities, at their request, for use. These names in other
> IDN character sets should be reserved in the same way as soon as they
> become available"
> 
> Whereas,
> in the same communiqué the GAC further "draws the attention of ICANN and
> the Registries to the fact that a large number of other names, including
> administrative sub-divisions of countries and distinct economies as
> recognised in international fora, may give rise to contested
> registrations. Accordingly the GAC recommends that Registrars and
> eventual Registrants should be made aware of this".
> 
> Whereas,
>  the ICANN Board in reaction to this communiqué has resolved
> http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-10sep01.htm  [01.92], "the
> General Counsel is directed to take appropriate action to preserve the
> Board's ability to take action with respect to the registration in .info
> of names of countries and distinct economies contained in the ISO 3166-1
> list"
> 
> Whereas, 
> the recent report from WIPO The Recognition of Rights and the Use of
> Names in the Internet Domain Name System
> http://wipo2.wipo.int/process2/report   concludes:
> "For geographical identifiers, ... it is recognized that certain norms
> exist at the international level which prohibit false and deceptive
> indications of geographical source on goods and which protect
> geographical indications, or the names of geographical localities with
> which goods having particular characteristics derived from that locality
> are associated.  However, these rules apply to trade in goods and may
> require some adaptation to deal with the perceived range of problems
> with the misuse of geographical indications in the DNS.  Furthermore,
> the lack of an international agreed list of geographical indications
> would pose significant problems for the application of the UDRP in this
> area because of the need to make difficult choices of applicable law. 
> It is suggested that the international framework in this area needs to
> be further advanced before an adequate solution is available to the
> misuse of geographical indications in the DNS.  As far as other
> geographical terms are concerned, the Report produces considerable
> evidence of the widespread registration of the names of countries,
> places within countries and indigenous peoples as domain names by
> persons unassociated with the countries, places or peoples.  However,
> these areas are not covered by existing international laws and a
> decision needs to be taken as to whether such laws ought to be
> developed".
> 
> Whereas,
> the WIPO report shows that seeking to extend coverage to anything
> narrower that the ISO 3166 country list is fraught with problems some of
> which have occupied the WTO and other fora for years due to conflicts
> arising:
> between geo-political indicators e.g. Venice Italy, Venice CA; Los
> Angeles California USA, Los Angeles Panama City Panama.
> * between geographical indicators and descriptors e.g. Chablis (French
> wine region and Chablis-style wines from California).
> * between geographical indications and trademarks e.g. Torres (a
> Portuguese village that grows vines and Torres, a Spanish winemaker), 
> * between geo-political and geographic indications of origin e.g. Parma
> the town and Parma ham.
> 
> Whereas, 
> the recent expansion of top-level domain names by ICANN has been a
> limited rather cautious test and included the names dot biz, dot name
> and dot info as well as chartered domain names, and that the implication
> of this expansion is that there are more to come in the near future.
> 
> Whereas, 
> the dot info registry has adopted the UDRP to enable the return of names
> acquired in bad faith.
> 
> Whereas,
> the ICANN Board has approved initiatives relating to Multilingual Domain
> Names and these initiatives have yet to complete their work,
> 
> 
> The Names Council advises:
> 
> 1. That while it understands the concerns of the GAC, caution should be
> exercised to avoid a short-term reaction to a problem that is not
> inherent to dot info but a function of a restriction in the supply of
> domain names.
> 
> 3. That retrospective action of the kind GAC seeks in other domain names
> is damaging to suppliers and confusing to users.
> 
> 4. That, due to the inherent complexity, the best forum for governments
> to seek solutions to the problems perceived by the GAC is the existing
> forum of such expertise, namely the inter-governmental specialised UN
> agency, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). 
> 
> The Names Council therefore calls upon the ICANN Board:
> a) to recommend to the GAC that it reconsiders its recommendation in
> this matter in the light of the WIPO processes and the recent WIPO
> report The Recognition of Rights and the Use of Names in the Internet
> Domain Name System,  and, 
> b) to propose a specific work item on this issue to be conducted by WIPO
> building on the work outlined in the aforementioned report; and
> c) to encourage the GAC and all interested parts of the ICANN structure
> to contribute to WIPO's work in this respect.  
> 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
		Please visit http://www.icannwatch.org
A. Michael Froomkin   |    Professor of Law    |   froomkin at law.tm
U. Miami School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA
+1 (305) 284-4285  |  +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)  |  http://www.law.tm
                 -->It's very hot and humid here.<--