NCSG input on request for special privileges for Red Cross & International Olympic Committee regarding Internet domains

[Alain Berranger]

Andrew,

Thanks for your clarifications...much appreciated... I agree very much with
your recommendation.

Is the majority saying that the mission of the organization is the
determinant here? Red Cross and Red Crescent are humanitarian organizations
and IOC is an elite sports organization....

I'm supportive of Red Cross' work in general and the Canadian Red Cross is
very popular with Canadians despite the blood tainting scandal some 10-15
years ago which caused a reorganization (blood collection, storage and
distribution are not part of its activities anymore). Public oversight and
criticism of the Red Cross during that tragic tainted blood crisis was
justified. I think that it keeps organizations on their toes so that checks
and balances are at play... so watch dog or whistle blowing web sites are
desirable....just how close the name similarity is something that I find
difficult to evaluate or even comprehend... with search engines as they are,
it is an issue that must be resolved...because of fraud and malice to start
with, but for other reasons I imagine too.

Alain

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 11:24 PM, Andrew A. Adams <aaa at meiji.ac.jp> wrote:

> Alain,
>
>
> > Are we mainly concerned with second level domain names? as trademarked
> and/=
> > or notorious gTLD names are dealt with: if you want to protect a valuable
> r=
> > esource such as a name - usually trademarked (say Nobel Prize or Honda or
> L=
> > ouis Vuitton or Apple or Red Cross) then the trademark holding body must
> ap=
> > ply for a corresponding gTLD, which will be used for primary purposes say
> j=
> > eanpierre.milan at design.louisvuitton. However, notoriety of a given name
> may=
> >  not always match the financial robustness needed to apply for a gTLD,
> but =
> > that will be the exception, no? I'm not sure though. Is gTLD aiming at a
> si=
> > ngle root or a family of similar roots (hence the suggestion to stick to
> st=
> > rict international treaties nomenclature which I find interesting but
> insuf=
> > ficient)? so what happens to related names such as vuitton or vuitton
> bags =
> > or luis vutton... ICANN cannot substitute for INTA, WIPO, etc... it must
> on=
> > ly respect INTA, WIPO, etc... rules and regulations.
>
> It appears to me that the ICRC and the IOC are asking for two things and
> conflating them as they have done complicates the issues and we should
> separate them out in our discussions and any presentations to the GNSO or
> the
> ICANN Board.
>
> 1. ICRC and IOC have requested that relevant new gTLDs including their
> marks
> be included on a reserved list and that no one apart from them be allowed
> to
> run them.
>
> Summary: most of us appear to dislike this but there is some (perhaps a
> majority) acceptance that it may be politic to allow the ICRC's marks as
> specified in the relevant international treaties to be put on the reserved
> list, but that no "similarity" clause be allowed - only the exact words in
> the international treaties. The IOC appears tohave no relevant mark in the
> alphabetic string space alone (only in the graphic mark or the graphic mark
> and the string) and thus there appears to be a large majority in favour of
> NCSG, or perhaps only NCUC, opposing the claim by the IOC.
>
>
> 2. ICRC and IOC have requested that all applicants for other new gTLDs must
> agree to place their marks on reserved lists which they operate.
>
> There appears to be little (though some) support on this list for this
> being
> allowed. For example the free speech implications of a .sucks gTLD banning
> ICRC.sucks for a criticism site of the ICRC (no matter how many of us may
> feel about the ICRC being a "saintly" organisation preventing criticism
> from
> being easily found an identified is not justifiable for many of us).
>
>
> --
> Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
> Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
> Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
> Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/
>



--
Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA
Member, Board of Directors, CECI,
http://www.ceci.ca<http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>
Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, www.schulich.yorku.ca
Trustee, GKP Foundation, www.globalknowledgepartnership.org
Vice Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, http://npoc.org/
O:+1 514 484 7824; M:+1 514 704 7824
Skype: alain.berranger
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