Re: [npoc-voice] NPOC Objection to Proposed European Union Policy with Negative Impact on Non-Profit Organizations

[Olévié Kouami <olivierkouami@xxxxxxxxx>]

+1 @Sam
+1 @Jean-Louis.
Where two or three persons are in accordance, surely, the spirit is there.
Let's move forward.
Cheers !

2014-12-18 18:46 GMT+00:00 Jean-Louis Ecochard <jecochard@xxxxxxx>:
>
>  Dear Sam:
>
>  Thank you for initiating the public comment objection.
> In this comment, let's remember that issues could arise from a world using
> different languages. A trademark in one language may be just a common word
> in another language (I.e. Not supposedly trademarkable).
> As an example, the ultimate silly application of the proposed rule would
> be to ban every domain name that include the trademark (GE) such as ima
> *ge*.com because GE is part thereof the domain name ...
>
>  Respectfully,
> Jean-Louis
>  From: Sam Lanfranco <lanfran@xxxxxxxx>
> Date: Wednesday, 17 December 2014 2:05 pm
> To: "npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx" <npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [npoc-voice] NPOC Objection to Proposed European Union Policy
> with Negative Impact on Non-Profit Organizations
>
>  NPOC members:
>
> On December 5, here on npoc-voice, I asked for comments on the proposed
> European Union revision of the EU Regulation on the Community Trade Mark
> and the European Union Directive Relating to Trade Marks. The proposed
> revised wording can have a serious negative impact on the ability of
> non-profit and civil society organizations (NPO/CS) to select appropriate
> website/domain names and email address strings. The proposal involves the
> insert of the following prohibition concerning domain names. It prohibits
> "Using the sign as a trade or company name/[...], or as a domain name, or
> as a part thereof."
>
> This wording risks promoting spurious complaints against non-commercial
> uses by making domain names effectively analogous to "a trade or company
> name". This would have a chilling effect on non-commercial expression by
> registrants in the European Union, and possibly elsewhere, via trademark
> litigation. While NPOC did not get much feedback on this issue, NPOC will
> now draft a Public Comment objection, post it here for comment, and then
> submit it to the EU.
>
> Sam Lanfranco, Chair
> NPOC Public Policy Committee
>


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Olévié Ayaovi Agbenyo KOUAMI
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