IP Justice Opposes the IRT Report Proposals

[Robin Gross <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN,

IP Justice is a nonprofit public benefit organization based in San  
Francisco that promotes balanced intellectual property rights in  
Internet law and policy.  Founded in 2002, IP Justice has an  
international board of directors and members in countries from all  
corners of the globe.  IP Justice participates at ICANN via the  
Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC).
IP Justice is opposed to all the major proposals contained within the  
IRT Report as being beyond the bounds of  trademark law and beyond  
the scope of ICANN's technical mandate.   We are concerned about the  
harmful impact on freedom of expression - particularly criticism and  
noncommercial speech by the proposed rules.  IP Justice is further  
opposed to the biased composition of the IRT Team and the secretive  
manner in which it did its work.  A true "bottom-up" policy  
development process would have included representatives of domain  
name registrants in the creation of the policy proposal.
Despite its hard work and long hours, which we all recognize and  
appreciate, the IRT Team failed its mandate to find a solution  
acceptable to all; and it failed in its own stated mission by  
attempting to create substantive rights for trademark claimants that  
do not exist in law.
Furthermore, the IRT Report proposes to shift the burden and the cost  
of protecting brands over to Internet users and away from the private  
companies who benefit from the privileges of trademark protection.   
The law does not do this.
ICANN should endeavor to provide a more balanced discussion as it  
takes the IRT Report on its summer world tour.  In particular, ICANN  
must ensure other stakeholders' views can be heard (and not only the  
IP Constituency) by providing travel support to noncommercial users  
and others who have significant concerns with the proposals but no  
resources to participate.
ICANN is an inappropriate forum for creating these new substantive  
trademark rights, despite its appeal to brand owners as a one-stop- 
shop for obtaining global policies for only the cost of a few  
thousand dollars in lobbyists.  This should not be the message ICANN  
sends the world about how policy is made at ICANN.
ICANN must not allow the constant threats from intellectual property  
lobbyists prevent the organization from introducing new gTLDs and  
creating an Internet that benefits everyone.  Remember these are the  
same lobbyists who promised the VCR would be the death to the movie  
industry in 1980, and who tried to sue MP3 players off the market 10  
years ago.  They have a solid track record of being wrong on these  
overblown claims (threats).  Their story that "the sky is falling  
because of new gtlds" should be easy to see through at this point.   
Please do not allow their threats to hold up the process any further  
by continuing with the IRT Report in any form.
Thank you,
Robin Gross


IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx