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

[Sam Lanfranco <lanfran@xxxxxxxx>]

Jean-Louis,

Thank you for your comment. As you point out, language is highly varied 
around the globe and the global nature of the Internet will raise a 
number of complicated trademark issues. We have faced similar issues in 
Canada where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took exception to 
the names of exiting Greek restaurants in Canada when Canada was to host 
the Winter Olympics. Part of NPOC's mission is to raise awareness and 
engagement in Internet issues, including domain name issues inside and 
outside ICANN, as well as Internet policy issues elsewhere in the 
Internet Ecosystem. While there may be no easy solutions to some of 
these issues, dialogue is an essential ingredient in dealing with all of 
them. Again, thanks.
Sam L

On 18/12/2014 1:46 PM, Jean-Louis Ecochard wrote:
> 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 <mailto:lanfran@xxxxxxxx>>
> Date: Wednesday, 17 December 2014 2:05 pm
> To: "npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx>" 
> <npoc-voice@xxxxxxxxx <mailto: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