has been followed in the main international instruments, including the WIPO conventions and
the WTO’s agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).
Possible gaps in dealing with copyright
Mechanisms for ensuring the right balance between the protection of authors’ rights and
protection of the public interest are needed.
There may be too little coverage of non-IPR aspects in the protection of copyright (e.g. risk
of infringement of other human rights while protecting copyright – e.g. privacy and freedom
of expression).
5.4 Trademark
The main relevance of trademark on the Internet is the question of registration of domain
names. In the early phase of Internet development, the registration of domain names was
done on a first come, first served basis. This led to cybersquatting, the practice of registering
names of companies and selling them later at a higher price. Trademark holders reacted by
introducing stricter protection of trademark in the ICANN governance regime. The recent
introduction of the new gTLDs reinvigorated the relevance of trademark for domain names,
ICANN, and overall IG.
Status of governance mechanisms for trademark
WIPO’s Madrid and Paris conventions provide the basis for trademark protection on the
Internet. Another WIPO instrument, the Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic
Symbol, was in focus during the debate on the special protection of the Olympic name in the
registration of new gTLDs.
The trademark Clearing House under ICANN's new gTLD program authenticates information
from rights holders and provides this information to registries and registrars.
The Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedures (UDRP) is the primary dispute resolution
procedure. The UDRP is stipulated in advance as a dispute resolution mechanism in all
contracts involving the registration of gTLDs (e.g. .com, .edu, .org, .net) and for some
ccTLDs as well. Its unique aspect is that arbitration awards are applied directly through
changes in the DNS without resorting to enforcement of trademark protection through
national courts.
Possible gaps in dealing with trademark
One submission to the WGEC/correspondence group indicated a potential policy gap in
dealing with competing claims for protection of trademarks and other internationally
important names (e.g. cases of ‘.amazon’ as new gTLD).
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