Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Preliminary Issue Report on Access by IGOs and INGOs to the Curative Rights Protections of the UDRP and URS. While I agree with Alex Kirikos and Jay Chapman that we should not interfere with existing rights of intellectual property owners I cannot agree that IGO's and INGO's should merely "be able to assert their rights in the exact same way that they can today under *existing laws* if someone opened a restaurant in Toronto or New York with a sign of "WIPO" or "UNESCO." ICANN should not be in the business of creating *new* law for these organizations, or for other organizations for that matter, that would deprive domain name registrants of their own rights under existing law. ICANN has bigger fish to fry, and should not be devoting precious and limited resources to this micro-issue which only affects a miniscule portion of the internet community, and where dangerous precedents could be created that would undermine the safeguards that ex

[Konrad von Finckenstein <finckenstein@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Preliminary Issue Report on

Access by IGOs and INGOs to the Curative Rights Protections of the UDRP and
URS.


While I agree with Alex Kirikos and Jay Chapman that we should not
interfere with existing rights of intellectual property owners I cannot
agree that IGO's and INGO's should  merely

"be able to assert their rights in the exact same way that they can today
under *existing laws* if someone opened a restaurant in Toronto or New York
with a sign of "WIPO" or "UNESCO." ICANN should not be in the business of
creating *new* law for these organizations, or for other organizations for
that matter, that would deprive domain name registrants of their own rights
under existing law. ICANN has bigger fish to fry, and should not be
devoting precious and limited resources to this micro-issue which only
affects a miniscule portion of the internet community, and where dangerous
precedents could be created that would undermine the safeguards that exist
for all domain name registrants."



IGO's and INGO's face special issues that the report convincingly spells
out. I also would point out that recommendation (g)  on page 32 states:

"Consider whether or not there may be practicable alternatives, other than
amending the UDRP and URS, that can nonetheless provide adequate curative
rights protections for IGOs and INGOs, such as the development of a
specific, narrowly-tailored DRP applicable only to IGOs and/or INGOs".



In my view this is the area that any future PDP should concentrate on. It
represents one of the most promising ways to resolve the different
objectives between protecting existing rights and addressing the needs of
IGO's and INGO's.




Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C.

Mediator & Arbitrator

Toronto, Ontario



<http://www.neesonchambers.com>