[NCUC-DISCUSS] An interesting development

[Kathy Kleiman]

Hi Benjamin,

You raise some interesting questions. First and foremost, this is an 
easy problem to avoid. Before launching any new venture, announcing any 
new movie, posting the name of any new organization, people in charge of 
the venture should register the domain names they would most like to 
have. These domain names are always far cheaper to register before the 
new venture (movie, organization) is named publicly.

That said, if this was a gTLD, it would probably be a case of 
cybersquatting. The reason we know this is that a famous "cybersquatter" 
in the early days (mid to late 1990s), named John Zuccarini sent shivers 
through the trademark world by registered as domain names many famous 
brands, including AmericanAirlines.com. He worked within the US, and was 
one the inspirations for the US Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection 
Act (ACPA) and, later, the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). He 
lost some of his domain names in  ACPA lawsuits, and he lost 
AmericanAirlines.com in a 2000 UDRP decision by the National Arbitration 
Forum, http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/95695.htm. The decision 
transferred americanairlines.com from Zuccarini to American Airlines, Inc.

That said, country codes (ccTLDs) do not have policies created by ICANN. 
Only generic top level domains (gTLDs) such as .COM, .ORG, .XYZ and 
.NINJA, have policies created by consensus through the multistakeholder 
community. Country-code TLDs create a few policies together through 
ICANN (e.g., they are working on a global policy for the retirement of 
ccTLDs, e.g., when the name of a country changes), but in general, their 
policies are created within the country and within the ccTLD.

This would include domain name dispute policies for .NG in Nigeria. To 
your questions:

1. Is this a case of cybersquatting -- that would depend on Nigerian law 
and dispute resolution policies of .NG -- and ultimately, decisions of a 
court or arbitration panel.

2. Is this a case of protection of geographic names -- I don't think so 
because this is the name of a newly organized company - NigeriaAir. 
There are many, many organizations and companies which very legitimately 
and legally include geographical names in their own names, or as their 
own names (e.g., in the US, Budweiser renamed its beer "America" for the 
summer, and American Airlines is a private company which did not ask 
permission from the US government before creating its new brand name).

3. If the WHOIS is not open, how will he be identified? Again, that 
depends on the rules of .NG. Nigeria's ccTLD makes its own WHOIS 
database rules, and they would likely depend on Nigerian privacy laws. 
But in the gTLD Whois, even the changes in the WHOIS database have not 
stopped the UDRP disputes. When a UDRP is filed, if it is otherwise 
complete, but no name for the domain name registrant is known, WIPO, NAF 
or other UDRP Provider, will ask the Registrar for the Registrant 
information -- to allow the Registrant to be notified of an action 
against their domain name. Generally, the Registrar responds with the 
Registrant data; sometimes the Registrar agrees to pass on the 
notification to the Registrant and give him/her/it the option to respond 
and thereby reveal their identity.

4. Will the government be violating his rights if they go after him? 
According to the article you linked to, "the minister revealed that the 
Nigerian government owns only a meagre 5% equity of Nigeria Air, 
therefore, it would be run as a private entity." In that case, this 
might become an action filed by the new Nigerian Air company as an 
arbitration or civil litigation. However,  given the Nigerian law that 
you shared, it may be possible for Nigerian prosecutors to pursue a 
criminal case as well.

Tx you for sharing this case -- and I would be very interested to hear 
what happens next!  You wrote that there is an interesting conversation 
in Nigeria among IG and DNS Stakeholders -- can you share a bit about 
this discussion?

Best, Kathy


On 7/22/2018 10:14 AM, Benjamin Akinmoyeje wrote:
> Hi All,
> There is an interesting domain name discussion or dispute going on in 
> Nigeria and I just like to get views of members of this list on this 
> issue.
>
> The Nigerian government announced a new national carrier - NigeriaAir 
> a few days ago and immediately an individual registered the domains 
> NigeriaAir.ng and NigeriaAir.com.ng <http://NigeriaAir.com.ng>; which 
> he is not offering for sale.
>
> Few things are at play here,
> Is this cybersquatting?
> Is this a case of protection geographic names, although this is with 
> the ccTLD?
> If the WHOIS was not open or if there was tiered access, how will he 
> be identified?
> Will the government by violating his rights if they go after him?
>
> The development of the DNS industry as a profitable
>
> Full story on this link 
> https://techpoint.ng/2018/07/20/nigeria-air-domain-taken/
>
> See attached an excerpt from the provision of the Nigeria Cybercrime law.
>
> I just like to get some views as this may change the DNS business 
> landscape in Nigeria,
>
> This is an interesting conversation going on in Nigeria amongst IG and 
> DNS stakeholders since yesterday - I like to know your thoughts.
>
> Regards,
> Benjamin
>
>
>
>
>
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> Ncuc-discuss mailing list
> Ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org
> https://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ncuc-discuss

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