Whois Proposal

["Aimee Nolan" <Aimee.Nolan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In response to ICANN's proposed changes to access to the Whois Database, as a 
representative of a major trademark/brand owner, we support adoption of Motion 
2 as proposed by the GNSO Council and urge the Council to reject Motions 1 and 
3.
 
As a representative of a major brand owner charged with policing the company's 
intellectual property, the Whois Database and the information it provides is 
essential in policing and protecting the company's valuable intellectual 
property.
 
The Whois information helps to protect brand owners and the general public in 
the following ways:
 
-        identifies the owner of the domain name, which informs consumers and 
trademark owners with information regarding whom they are dealing with
-        gives the general public and brand owners alike a way to contact the 
domain name owner to settle problems and/or obtain information from the owner 
in a less costly manner than the structures proposed in Motions 1 or 3, or 
having to file a legal action to obtain owner information
-        can help brand owners determine if the domain name owner has 
protectable rights 
-        helps brand owners determine if a domain name registrant has 
registered other names owned by brand owners (i.e., cybersquatters)
-        saves everyone time and money since no additional resources need to be 
spent to investigate/discover who owns a particular website.  
o       If businesses have to spend considerable time and resources tracking 
down domain name owners the cost is inevitably passed on to consumers, 
resulting in higher costs for everyone.
o       The same for law enforcement agencies.  The additional cost and 
resources needed to track down this information generally results in increased 
taxes to pay for the additional resources needed.
-        lets brand owners and law enforcement know in what jurisdiction an 
action would need to be filed
 
Not only would brand owners be harmed by the Motions 1 and 3 as proposed by the 
GNSO Council, by making it more time consuming, costly and possibly impossible 
to protect their brands; the general public would be harmed much more by 
increased phishing attacks, counterfeit goods and other unauthorized activities 
that are being conducted online.
 
Therefore, we submit that ICANN should conduct a thorough study on the actual 
uses of the Whois data and then propose a policy change that would take into 
consideration any such legitimate uses.
 Aimee M. Nolan
Senior Corporate Counsel
W.W. Grainger, Inc.
100 Grainger Parkway, B4.T56
Lake Forest, IL  60045-5201
Phone:  847-535-1047
Fax:  847-535-9243