[council] US Small Business Roundtable on famous marks

[KathrynKL@aol.com]

I have been asked to forward an invitation to the Names Council to attend the 
US Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy's, Monday Roundtable on 
famous mark protection and pending proposals in WG-B.  Eric Menge, who you 
may have met in Cairo, tries to bring together a very broad group of people 
to debate different views and positions before small businesses.

Participation is both in person or by phone.  Details below.
Regards, Kathy
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Office of Advocacy
U.S. Small Business Administration

Roundtable Discussion
on the
Small Business Impact of Famous Trademark Protection on the Internet

The Office of Advocacy, U.S. Small Business Administration, is hosting a
roundtable discussion on the impact on small business of a proposal to
provide special protections on the Internet to famous trademarks.

The roundtable is scheduled for April 10 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the U.S.
Small Business Administration's offices located at 409 Third St., S.W.
Washington, D.C.  A summary of the proposal is listed below.  A full agenda
of the roundtable will be released shortly.

For those interested in attending in person, directions for driving or using
the Washington Metro system will be provided in a separate e-mail.

The Office of Advocacy will provide a teleconference bridge to those parties
interested in small business e-commerce that cannot attend in person.  This
service will be provided via a toll-free number and a local number for those
in the Washington Metro area.  The number and passcode will be provided in a
separate e-mail. 

If you are interested in participating either by phone or in person, please
notify Eric Menge at 202-205-6949 or at eric.menge@sba.gov.  Advocacy asks
that all interested parties respond by close of business April 6.

* * * * *

Proposal for the Protection of Famous Marks on the Internet

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") has
created a working group (designated Working Group B) to make recommendations
on what protections should be given to famous marks on the Internet.  This
working group is currently considering a proposal that would a limited
"sunrise" period for those trademarks that are deemed famous.  To Advocacy's
understanding the proposal contains the following elements: 

(1) The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") would create a
famous mark list using the criteria below, which were put forth in its
report on the subject last year:
    (a) degree of knowledge or recognition of the mark in the
relevant sector of the public;
    (b) duration, extent and geographical area of any use of the
mark;
    (c) duration, extent and geographical area of any promotion of
the mark;
    (d) duration and geographical area of any registrations of the
mark;
    (e) the record of successful enforcement of the rights in the
mark; 
    (f) value associated with the mark; and
    (g) evidence of registration of domain names that are the same
or misleadingly similar to the mark.
(2) Marks that are on the list would have the option of registering
names during a "sunrise period" whenever a new general Top Level Domain
("gTLD") is added to the Internet.  The sunrise period would be a brief
period of time before the new domain is available for the general public to
register.
(3) During this sunrise period, famous marks could register the domain
name identical to the famous mark and either five or 10 variations of the
famous mark.
(4) The owner of the famous mark would have to pay for each
registration. 
(5) Once registration is opened to the general public, famous marks do
not receive any further benefit.  There would be no use of filters on domain
name registrations.
(6) Applicability of the sunrise period would be determined on a
case-by-case basis.  Currently, those gTLDs designated for personal and
non-commercial use would be exempt.

For more information on ICANN, please visit its home page at
http://www.icann.org.  The archives of the discussion of Working Group are
at http://www.dnso.org/listsdnso.html.  Advocacy's issue page on domain
names is at http://www.sba.gov/is_dom.html.


--
Eric Menge
Office of Advocacy
U.S. Small Business Administration
(202) 205-6949; eric.menge@sba.gov
www.sba.gov/advo