[council] Letter from WIPO to ICANN

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,
 
Please see the attached letter from WIPO to ICANN dated 15 Nov 2005.
 
See below for plain text version.
 
Regards,
Bruce Tonkin


Dear Dr Cerf, Dr Twomey

I am contacting you to inquire about the status of the recommendations
made by WIPO in the context of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name
Process (WIPO-2 Recommendations) to extend protection under the Uniform
Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) to country names and the
names and acronyms of International Intergovernmental Organisations
(IGOs).

At the last WIPO General Assembly which took place in Geneva from
September 26 to October 5, 2005, a number of delegations expressed
concern with regard to the apparent lack of progress in the
implementation of the WIPO-2 Recommendations.  These delegations also
requested the WIPO Secretariat to transmit this concern to ICANN.

I would therefore be grateful if you could enable us to inform our
member States as to how ICANN intends to proceed in this matter.   As
you will recall, the WIPO-2 Recommendations were transmitted to ICANN in
February 2003.   They were unanimously supported by ICANN's Governmental
Advisory Committee on a number of occasions.   Unfortunately, the
Working Group which you established to consider implementation issues
focussed on issues other than implementation and, unlike the Working
Group that developed the UDRP on the basis of WIPO's Recommendations
made in the context of the First WIPO Internet Domain Name Process,
failed to produce any agreed recommendations.

At your request, WIPO subsequently submitted a briefing note providing
further information on the issue as well as a draft confirming the (few)
additions that would have to be made to the UDRP in order to implement
the WIPO-2 Recommendations.   The Comment Forum that you established in
December 2004 failed to trigger any substantive comments from the
public.

You will appreciate the concerns of countries with regard to the abuse
of their country's names especially in new generic Top Level Domains.
Please also note the very real concerns of IGOs concerning the
protection of their names and acronyms which are a vital prerequisite
for them to perform their functions.   If anything, the abuse of IGO
names and acronyms has increased over the last years and has caused a
great deal of confusion among, and outright fraud directed at,
consumers.  Regrettably, such abuse also targets IGOs involved in
humanitarian , development and health-related activities.

I hope that you will consider the issue further at your next meeting in
Vancouver.  My colleague Mr Christian Wichard will be attending the
meeting and is available to meet with you should you so require.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Your sincerely,

Francis Gurry
Deputy Director General
World Intellectual Property Organization 
WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
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