no trademark, no private ownership
Dear ICANN folks, I just read about your plans to give control of generic TLDs into the hands of private persons or companies. While I recognize that the technology might have improved to the point that we can have many more TLDs than before, allowing single entities to control a generic class of stuff like services or products seems very ill advised to me. Essentially they then get control of a given brand, like “books”, which would be internationally recognized. But such generic brands aren’t allowed in international trademark law. With domain names you can give trademark control on a technical level, but that must not give more generic names than general trademark law allows. A domain name is already a broader control than the one given by trademark law, since it is not tied to a Nizza service class. If I own the brand foo for the service class printed stuff (class 16 by Nizza classification), I might be able to sue the owner of foo.com to give out the domain name. But if someone registers foo for class 41 (online publication) I might still be forced to give out the domain. Having even broader control would create legal uncertainty and undermine international trademark law. So please refrain from private control of generic TLDs. Best wishes, Arne Attachment:
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