[gnso-rn-wg] Interest Statement of Lucila King (IPC- AIPPI)

["Lucila King" <lucila.king@xxxxxxxxx>]

As an IP trademark attorney, it is a great pleasure for me to participate in
the GNSO Reserved Names Working Group.

At present time I am working as an independent IP consultant for the
Argentine Trademark Agent Association (www.aaapi.org.ar). I represent the
AIPPI, member of the IP Constituency (IPC).

For the past ten years I worked as an associate in the Trademark department
with Marval O'Farrell & Mairal, Buenos Aires, Argentina (www.marval.com.ar).
Besides dealing with regular trademark prosecution, I gain a strong
expertise in the management of companies'domain names portfolios at ccTLD
"ar" and gTLD.  I also assisted local and foreing companies –as well as
registrars- with the recovering of the domain names unlawfully registered
with the ccTLD "ar" and in some cases registered in the gTLDs.

The  ccTLD "ar" is under the management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(because it was historically the first argentine organization connected to
the Internet in 1995).

Nic-Argentina currently grants domain names free of charge –we expect this
to change soon- and as far as I know it is the only country manager who
proceeds in such a way.  Under the ccTLD there are no  "Reserved Names
categories" except from those that are confusingly similar to the names of
Argentine governametal institutions.  Of course, given the mentioned
conditions the ccTLD "ar" is plenty of abusive registration cases.

I am very interested with the possibility of participating in the Reserved
Names Working Group since I will have the opportunity to witness the on
going process that will realese *"reserved names"* at the *"first (top)
second and thrid level"**(*)** * and particularly, the way in which the
existing prior rights of trademark owners, country names and IGO will be
recognized and protected from abusive registrations.

I believe that my working experience on these matters might be useful for
the Group. Having worked with an "unrestricted" registrar such as
NIC-Argentina and considering the example given by the realese of .biz and
.info, I strongly believe that if prior rights of the trademark owners
and the communities with "legitimate interest" in a particular string or
reserved domain name are not carefully attended, they will face the
difficulties and disbursements of registering domain names only for
defensive purposes.

I look forward to working with you all.

Lucila King

*(*) From the transcript of the first meeting of the WG, I understand that
at this stage it will only be discussed the realese of "reserved names" at
the second and thrid level only. A further working group will discuss the
realease of reserved names and any other string that could be proposed as
first (top) level domain. And within such group a special attention will be
given to the controversial topic of Trademarks, Country Names and IGO.  I
would very much appreciate your letting me know if my understanding on this
topic is accurate.*