[At-Large] [GTLD-WG] IRT working group report

[Bret Fausett]

Hong Xue wrote:
> Should ICANN do that?

Hong asks the right question, and it's the question I raised in my own  
comments to the IRT. On the IP Clearinghouse, for example, why should  
ICANN, a technical coordination body, design, create and oversee the  
world first international database of trademarks? I can see ICANN  
using such a database if someone else created it -- WIPO? private  
party? -- but why should ICANN, in the first instance, be charged with  
this major undertaking?

And on the Global Protected Marks List, why should ICANN create the  
international standard for judging what trademarks are deemed  
"globally protected," when not even WIPO has chosen to do so? Isn't  
that something that should be decided by WIPO or the nations of the  
world? Again, I can see ICANN borrowing a standard, the way it borrows  
the ISO standard for determining what is a nation for ccTLD purposes,  
but what should ICANN create that list?

On Alan's point that we should offer constructive alternatives, as I  
said here before, if we think parts of the IRT proposal should be  
scrapped altogether, we should say so. Changing the windshield wipers  
on a car that should be sent to the scrapyard is a trap, and if  
something is junk, we should call it junk.

As I see it, at least on the IP Clearinghouse and the Globally  
Protected Marks List, nothing is stopping WIPO or the nations of the  
world from agreeing on standards and creating a trademark database. If  
they create it, ICANN can certainly use it. But it's far outside  
ICANN's mission, not to mention it's areas of expertise, for it to  
take this on.

       Bret