[gnso-rpm-wg] Action Items, Slides and Notes from the Working Group call held earlier today

[George Kirikos]

Hi folks,

On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 4:19 AM, Beckham, Brian <brian.beckham at wipo.int> wrote:
> Finally, since the chart references the EFF letter, it is worth mentioning
> here that the fact that a trademark owner may pay (sometimes extremely high
> amounts) to defensively register a domain name exactly matching its
> trademark in a Sunrise process (and thereby taking it “off the market”) does
> not prevent free expression, which may be undertaken in countless other
> ways.  The number of terms that may be appended to a trademark (not to
> mention typos) to engage in all manner of speech – fair or otherwise – is,
> practically-speaking, all but limitless.

By that "logic", the number of terms that may be appended to a common
dictionary word (not to mention typos) to create a trademarkable brand
is, practically-speaking, all but limitless. :-)

In other words, those creating a new brand/trademark certainly had the
opportunity to create a longer (and thus inferior) alternative to a
commonly used dictionary word or other common term. The fact that they
decided instead to choose a common term that is widely used by the
public shouldn't give them any priority access in a launch of a new
gTLD.

"I created a problem for myself, and I want ICANN to fix it" is the
essence of the sunrise argument for commonly used terms, like
dictionary words and short acronyms.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
416-588-0269
http://www.leap.com/