In October '99 Michael Palage wrote to me, "Our focal
point must remain what protection if any do famous trademarks have."To repeat,
the Chair of Working Group B said "[Working Group B's] focal point must remain what
protection if any do famous trademarks have."
-----------
verbatim note:
-----------
From:
Michael D. Palage [mailto:mpalage@infonetworks.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 10,
1999 9:48 PM
To: Judith Oppenheimer
Subject: Request
Judith I am sending
this request to you personally and not through the list.
I understand the issues
that you may have with the entire ICANN process but
it is not the focal point
of this group.
Our focal point must remain what protection if any do famous trademarks
have.
Thanks
for your participation to date and I welcome your future comments on
the issues
before us. I encourage you to raise your concerns in the
appropriate ICANN mailing
list.
Mike
-----------
By what authority did Mr. Palage abandon Working Group
B's charter of "what protection if any do famous trademarks have"?
What is the
foundation for The [so-called] Report of Working Group B's assertion that "The Sunrise
Proposal allowing pre-registration for all Trademarks now has strong support in the
registrar communities..."
Timothy Denton, BA, BCL, Telecom and Internet Law and
Policy, says, "There is no evidence that the registrars agree with the supposed proposal.
They have not formally been consulted."
Registrar TUCOWS/OpenSRS' comments with
the DNSO state "...The IPC's
contentions that trade mark holders are owed a special
set of privileges regarding domain names, different from and superior to those worked
out in national legislatures, is not something that other users of the Internet need
to accept. Moreover, it is unnecessary. The fastest way to eradicate the problem
that the IPC pretends to solve is to have a rapid, large expansion of domain names...
This most recent proposal from the IPC must be stopped. If it stands, the rules for
the average person as it relates to
domain name registration will change drastically
and for the worse."
Similarly, I'd like to know the foundation for The [so-called]
Report of Working Group B's assertion that "Some members of the ... Small Business
Communities also have expressed support for this Proposal."
Which members?
Certainly
not the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, which says "the
sunrise provision allowing early registration by trademark holders is not grounded
in law... It is also overly-broad and will impact entities who aren't infringing
the mark, as well as giving preferential treatment to one class of commercial entities
over another...", and concludes adamantly, "the current "modified sunrise proposal"
would have a detrimental impact on small business and should not be adopted."
I
have queried the Names Council regarding these questions, and as yet have received
no response.
Judith Oppenheimer
Member, Working Group-B