[Discussion-igo-rc] External Legal advice on applicable local law for the protection of the legal rights of IGOs

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,

During the discussion in Copenhagen it was agreed that there was a public interest goal in protecting the  Names and abbreviations of International InterGovernmental Organizations (IGOs).   

An example of such a protection in an international treaty is in Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property protects the names and abbreviations of International interGovernmental Organizations (IGOs) against unauthorized registration and use as trademarks.

Dispute mechanisms developed by the GNSO for gTLDs need to conform with relevant principles of international law and international conventions and applicable local law.   The UDRP was built on trademark law for example.   As IGOs often use Article 6ter to prevent the registration as trademarks of an IGO name or abbreviation they cannot then use trademark law to take legal action against a mis-use of a trademark.

During the discussions in Copenhagen it was not clear what applicable local laws can be used by IGOs, or Governments on their behalf, to tackle infringements in the offline world - e.g. printed publications or signs that mis-use the names and abbreviations of International interGovernmental Organizations (IGOs).

I propose asking the ICANN organization, on behalf of this discussion group, to get some expert external legal advice on the following general question:

" Separately from any trademark rights, what substantive legal rights (if any) do International interGovernmental Organizations  (IGOs) have in their acronyms under specific national laws and/or international law? For instance, are there consumer protection statutes or other causes of action that an IGO can rely on to assert specific legal rights in its acronym?"

In getting this legal advice, I would propose that:

- any legal opinion should be obtained from a third party, preferably a person or entity that can be regarded by the GNSO Council, the GAC, and the affected parties (ie IGOs) as neutral. 

- the question and scope of such an enquiry should be agreed by this group and be as specific as possible to ensure it can be provided in a timely fashion and at reasonable cost - e.g. we might want to select a small subset (e.g. 5) of countries for a survey that are representative of the approach in various regions of the world - given that legal advice would be needed from law firms in each country.


This advice would then help inform the work of the GNSO Working Group on IGO-INGO Curative Rights Protections Policy.

Please let me know if the group would like to proceed down this path, and if so how should the question be formulated.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin