RPM Comment from dotgay LLC

[Scott Seitz <sseitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello:

Today we write to provide comment regarding the proposed "Rights Protection 
Mechanism (RPM) Requirements Public Comment Phase" 
(icann.org/en/news/public-comment/rpm-requirements-06aug13-en.htm) to highlight 
its impact on the Community applications and restricted applications.

Proposed:
"As specified in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, all new gTLD registries are 
required to offer a set of rights protection mechanisms, including a Sunrise 
period and a Trademark Claims service. These are minimum requirements, to 
support enhanced trademark protections in the new gTLD space.

The sunrise and trademark claims services have been implemented in accordance 
with the goal of providing protection for verified legal rights. Registry 
operators have discretion to implement their TLD startup phases in accordance 
with their individual business and operational models, so long as the minimum 
requirements are met."

Concern:

As set forth in the Right Protection Mechanism document,  ICANN will force 
restricted registration and community applications into accepting every and any 
TM registration that became "active" at ANY given time in any country without 
regard to usage or activity.  These TM registrants will be given access to 
domains in advance of the targeted community or user group and registry 
operators effectively blocking functional usage.

Result:

*       Reduced innovation of the new gTLD

*       Priority access to the registration of domain names exclusively for 
owners of unrelated trademarks - before anyone else can register any domain

*       A below standard eligibility threshold for access that will NOT require 
proof of having established and actually using the actual intellectual property

*       Speculator/gaming access to anyone for nominal fees (often less than 
$100) to register any generic term as TM in a multitude of countries worldwide. 
 NOTE:  low eligibility criteria (eg. the 2006 launch of .eu) in combination 
with high demand for new gTLD's will drive the incentive for many entities to 
consider gaming the system in order to secure priority access to premium domain 
name space

Consequences:

*       This constitutes damage to the TLD operator, community applicants and 
restricted applicants developing benefits for their users.

*       The prospective other registrants are excluded from the fair access.

*       A lack of tools to create true innovation on the web, by example:

o   Registry operator might want to operate a multitude of community relevant 
premium domain names for the benefit of the other registrants (index listings) 
and the Internet users.

o   Keeping high demand keywords from vibrant and functional use.

o   Restricting internet users ability to intuitively use important generic 
terms as navigation - NOTE: "grabbed domains" are usually parked for traffic 
monetization without benefit for users or registry's.

*       Weakening of the TLD brand by depriving it of the ability to build 
awareness among potential registrants and Internet users.

Suggestions:
While we of course recognize and respect the necessity of protecting 
established intellectual property, the current RPM draft seems to have a 
"procedural defect" that encourages fraudulent TM grabbers to abuse the Sunrise 
(SR) phase and to put the registry operator, prospective registrants and 
Internet users at great disadvantage.

In this context we suggest a few fair solutions that are easy to implement as 
well as easy to understand and communicate:

*       Enable registry operators to exempt certain parts of the generic 
namespace from SR.

*       This shall include:

o   Any term from any dictionary that is affiliated with the respective TLD

o   All geo-names, e.g. countries, cities, regions, states, boroughs if they 
are affiliated with the TLD

o   Any 3 letter code as they are "quasi-generic" and preferred target of 
sunrise domain grabbers

*       Or provide the registry operator at least with the possibility to 
reject any SR application which meets one of the described criteria: If IBM 
wants to register IBM.shop or IBM.gay the registry operators will be all too 
happy to grant access. But if someone tries to register run.sports with a newly 
acquired TM that is not in use at all registry shall be enabled to deny.

Since 2001 a multitude of new TLD's have been established (e.g. .info, .us, 
idn.de, .mobi).  To this day it is observable that most of the premium generic 
term based domain names have been acquired by domain grabbers during SR. 
Creating a vibrant information filled destination, and building a brand should 
not be encumbered by those who would use this process under the guise of 
"preserve, protect and defend" to gain an advantage or stagnate a system.

Regards,

Scott R. Seitz

dotgay LLC / SPI Marketing
307 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1807
New York,  NY  10001

sseitz@spimarketing
212-760-1400 x 1  business

www.dotgay.com<http://www.dotgay.com>