INTA Comments on ICANN’s Draft Applicant Guidebook
Form：Anhui CNT Trademark Law Firm Time：2010年10月19日 Views：927
The International Trademark Association (INTA) announced the submission of its comments on the fourth version of the gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG), an implementation proposal for the introduction of an unlimited number of gTLDs or generic top level domains (such as .com or .org) to be added to the Internet’s domain name system. The comments were sent to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for the allocation and management of the domain name system.
On behalf of the intellectual property community, INTA voices concerns that ICANN’s proposal will lead to high levels of trademark and intellectual property abuse on the Internet. This will cause consumer confusion and require brand owners to incur extensive additional costs to protect their trademarks online.
INTA also told ICANN that the proposal has inadequate protections to combat cybersquatters—entities that register and traffic Internet domain names with the bad-faith intent to benefit from another’s trademark in order to confuse and take advantage of consumers.
“These negative effects, if not properly addressed, will jeopardize public health and safety and devalue brand equity,” says INTA Executive Director Alan C. Drewsen. “We urge ICANN to revise its proposal to ensure that the public is properly protected from these threats.”
INTA’s comments provide recommendations to address a number of issues, including the need to:
On behalf of the intellectual property community, INTA voices concerns that ICANN’s proposal will lead to high levels of trademark and intellectual property abuse on the Internet. This will cause consumer confusion and require brand owners to incur extensive additional costs to protect their trademarks online.
INTA also told ICANN that the proposal has inadequate protections to combat cybersquatters—entities that register and traffic Internet domain names with the bad-faith intent to benefit from another’s trademark in order to confuse and take advantage of consumers.
“These negative effects, if not properly addressed, will jeopardize public health and safety and devalue brand equity,” says INTA Executive Director Alan C. Drewsen. “We urge ICANN to revise its proposal to ensure that the public is properly protected from these threats.”
INTA’s comments provide recommendations to address a number of issues, including the need to:
- design and implement workable and scalable safeguards to protect trademarks and prevent the theft of intellectual property through the domain name system,
- develop mechanisms to address the escalating level of malicious criminal activity targeting consumers on the Internet, and
- commission an empirical fact-based study of the domain name marketplace to ensure any introduction of new gTLDs will create net social benefits and serve the public’s interest.
