Nick Wood wrote an article on TrademarksandBrandsOnline.com took a look at a strong push from certain governments, a representative from Argentina is highlighted, that want restrictions and protections for Geographic names in the second round of the new gtld program. Everyone is familiar that Patagonia and Amazon were shot down in round one of the new gtld program rollout.
From the article:
A sub-group of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee wants to severely restrict the use of geographical names in domain names or trademarks, but this proposal must be vigorously opposed, says Nick Wood of domain name registrar Com Laude.
Forget what you learned at law school. It is time to adjust your thinking on international law. Governments deserve a right of veto over how you can use some of your trademarks.
Extreme as it sounds, this is what a sub-group of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) wants in relation to the second round of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). A paper titled The Protection of Geographic Names in the New gTLD Process proposes that “geographic names should not be allowed to be registered as gTLDs, unless requested by the relevant communities where they belong or after a specific authorisation given by the government or community to the applicant”.
Read the full article on TrademarksandBrandsOnline.com