[ALAC] [IDN-WG] Draft Statement on TMCH and Variants

[Hong Xue]

Hi, Rinalia, kindly let me know what was the decision from ALAC at the
wrap-up? Or, no movement at all?

Hong


On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 11:40 PM, Rinalia Abdul Rahim <
rinalia.abdulrahim at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Hong,
>
> Thank you for this extensive draft statement for the ALAC's
> consideration.  The discovery that the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) does
> not address IDN variants is distressing, particularly for the Chinese case
> given its unique variant situation.  By way of copying Avri, I am asking
> her about the possibility of a joint statement on this issue and the time
> frame the new gTLD WG might require to review the draft. In my opinion it
> would certainly strengthen the case if it is a joint WG statement.
>
> Given the substantive content of this draft, it is possible that the ALAC
> may ask for additional information and time to consider the draft and to
> comment.  Let's see what Avri thinks and what the ALAC would say tomorrow.
>
> It would be good if you are able to attend the ALAC wrap-up meeting
> tomorrow (Thursday 9-11am) to brief the ALAC about the draft. I expect
> statement approvals will be addressed under agenda item 4 on ALAC Action.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rinalia
>  On Apr 10, 2013 10:19 PM, "Hong Xue" <hongxueipr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> Please find below my draft statement. I'd appreciate for your quick review
>> and feedback.
>>
>> I was the drafter of the New gTLD WG Statement on TMCH. Shall we also
>> forward the draft to that WG to make it a joint submission to ALAC?
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Hong
>>
>> _________________________________________________
>>
>> At-Large Statement on Trademark Clearinghouse and IDN Variants
>>
>>
>>
>> At-large community is very disappointed at the implementation model
>> outlined by “Trademark Clearinghouse: Rights Protection Mechanism
>> Requirements” (hereafter “Requirements’) published on April 6, 2013.
>> Particularly, the model completely overlooks the critical issues of IDN
>> variants with respect to trademark clearinghouse (TMCH) and as a result
>> would seriously impact the public interest in the pertinent user
>> communities.
>>
>>
>>
>> According to the Requirements, *matching domain name labels will be
>>
>> generated for each Trademark Record in accordance with the Trademark
>> Clearinghouse’s domain name matching rules*.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> The matching rules at the TMCH obviously, however, fail to take into
>> account the trademarks in IDN scripts involving variants, although the
>> variant issues had been raised by the language community experts at the
>> Implementation Assistant Group (IAG).
>>
>>
>>
>> Variant matching is actually critical for certain language communities.
>> Take Chinese for example, where a trademark holder merely registers a
>> simplified word-mark but not its traditional equivalence, there will only
>> be one trademark record generated in the TMCH. Since the new gTLD
>> registries are obliged to offer sunrise services and trademark claims for
>> the trademarks recorded in the TMCH, only that simplified word-mark will
>> be
>> eligible for sunrise registration and trademark claim services and leaves
>> the traditional equivalence open for cybersquatting. Since both writings
>> of
>> the word-mark are deemed identical in the Chinese community and few
>> trademarks are registered in both writings, ruling out the un-registered
>> writing would make TMCH completely useless to Chinese trademarks.
>>
>>
>>
>> What is even more striking is that the Requirements specifically prohibits
>> any registry from implementing *variant or bundling rules* and allocating
>> domain names *under such variant or bundling rules prior to the
>>
>> conclusionof the Sunrise Period.
>> * Such restriction actually excludes any solution for IDN trademarks
>> involving variants to be accommodated in the sunrise period at the TLD
>> level, even though a registry is willing fix the variants through its
>> registration management and at its own costs.
>>
>>
>>
>> Trademarks have very important function of safeguarding public interests
>> by
>> identifying the source of goods or services. The malfunctioned TMCH design
>> would cause serious public confusion and market chaos. Although at-large
>> community never supports over-extensive trademark measures, ICANN should
>> treat all the trademarks equally, irrespective of the characters of the
>> trademarks, and protect the users in all language communities from
>> confusion equally.
>>
>>
>>
>> At-Large community has made the statement on the Trademark Clearinghouse
>> (TMCH) in September 2012, in which at-large community concerns that the
>> design of TMCH model that uniformly applies to all the gTLD registries,
>> irrespective of their difference, may not provide the tailored services
>> that are really needed by the new gTLD registries. At-large community
>> suggested that “more open and flexible model deserves further
>> exploration.”
>>
>>
>>
>> The Chinese Internet user community, dating back to October 2011,
>> suggested
>> that IDN-script trademarks involving variants should be taken into account
>> in the TMCH services and ICANN consider adopting community-based solution
>> to address this issue. Many other language communities shared the views of
>> Chinese community.
>>
>>
>>
>> Unfortunately, ICANN has been deaf to the user community’s feedback and
>> inputs and moves steadily toward the centralized, inflexible and
>> variants-unfriendly TMCH. At-large community, therefore, strongly suggests
>> that ICANN support community-based TLD-bottom-up solution for TMCH
>> implementation and address the IDN variant issue before TMCH provides the
>> services to the new gTLD registries.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Professor Dr. Hong Xue
>> Director of Institute for the Internet Policy & Law (IIPL)
>> Beijing Normal University
>> http://www.iipl.org.cn/
>> 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Street
>> Beijing 100875 China
>> _______________________________________________
>> IDN-WG mailing list
>> IDN-WG at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/idn-wg
>>
>> IDN WG Wiki:
>> https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+IDN+Policy
>>
>


-- 
Professor Dr. Hong Xue
Director of Institute for the Internet Policy & Law (IIPL)
Beijing Normal University
http://www.iipl.org.cn/
19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Street
Beijing 100875 China