Support for Strawman Solution and Limited Preventative Registration

[Jonas.Koelle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Sir / Madam,

Merck KGaA is applicant for .merck and .emerck gTLDs.
Merck KGaA actively defends its trademark portfolio against domain name
abuse and actively fights counterfeiting activities in the field of illegal
drug sales. Among other measures Merck KGaA sent numerous cease and desist
letters and filed UDRP proceedings against bad faith domain name
registrations of our valuable brands.


Merck KGaA is convinced that the proposed "Strawman Solution" and the
"Limited Preventative Registration" will be effectively support our efforts
in increasing the online safety for our consumers and patients worldwide.
We therefore support adoption of both proposals. Merck KGaA believes these
enhancements should be implemented so ICANN’s underlying new gTLD policy of
Protecting the Rights of Others can be achieved - given the breadth, scale
and scope of the proposed expansion of the Domain Name System, especially
as we expect an increase of online infringement within the new gTLD space.


Thank you for your consideration.


Best regards,


_________________________________
Jonas Kölle
Director
Rechtsanwalt / Senior Corporate Counsel

Merck KGaA
Corporate Trademarks
Frankfurter Straße 250
D- 64293 Darmstadt      - Germany -

mailto: jonas.koelle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: + 49 - 6151- 72 - 5303
Fax: +  49 - 6151 - 72 - 3378

Pflichtangaben finden Sie unter http://www.merckgroup.com/mandatories

Mandatory Information can be found at http://www.merckgroup.com/mandatories



This message and any attachment are confidential and may be privileged or
otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient,
you must not copy this message or attachment or disclose the contents to
any other person. If you have received this transmission in error, please
notify the sender immediately and delete the message and any attachment
from your system. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and any of its
subsidiaries do not accept liability for any omissions or errors in this
message which may arise as a result of E-Mail-transmission or for damages
resulting from any unauthorized changes of the content of this message and
any attachment thereto. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and any of its
subsidiaries do not guarantee that this message is free of viruses and does
not accept liability for any damages caused by any virus transmitted
therewith.

Click http://www.merckgroup.com/disclaimer to access the German, French,
Spanish and Portuguese versions of this disclaimer.