Re: [ga] NewZealand.com WIPO decision

[DPF <david@farrar.com>]

On Thu, 19 Dec 2002 11:03:28 -0800 (PST), George Kirikos
<gkirikos@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>The decision is here:
>
>http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-0754.html
>
>It's good to see that the panel made the right decision this time,
>unlike the case of NewZealand.biz which was previously discussed on
>this list and elsewhere.

Indeed a very good decision.  For those interested a copy of a press
release from InternetNZ on the issue is below.

DPF

December 12 2002

Silly Season Media release

QUEEN NOT AMUSED - INTERNETNZ DELIGHTED

The decision by the World Intellectual Property Organisation's
Arbitration and Mediation Center that the domain name "newzealand.com"
not be handed to complainant TradeNZ has been hailed by InternetNZ as
a decision which upholds the rights of domain name registrants.  In a
landmark decision, the  WIPO Uniform Dispute Resolution (UDRP) Panel
not only ruled that the original registrant of newzealand.com, Virtual
Countries, Inc. of the USA, had not made a "bad faith" registration,
but that TradeNZ was guilty of an attempted domain name hijacking in
making the complaint.

Her Majesty comes into the picture as New Zealand Government Agencies,
cannot take cases except in the name of the Queen via the relevant
Minister of the Crown. Her Majesty is unlikely to be amused, but
whether her reaction will be to the ruling or to the misjudgement in
the original complaint is unknown.

TradeNZ based its case on the claim that "NEW ZEALAND is a trade and 
service mark owned collectively by all NZ citizens and their
institutions represented by the Head of State that is to say the
Complainant. This trademark is used to identify those goods and
services produced by and for citizens, organisations and the State of
New Zealand from the goods and services produced by citizens,
organisations and/or States of other countries."

The UDRP Panel rejected this argument, noting: "… having read the
Response of the New Zealand Government to the WIPO Secretariat’s
questionnaire …, the Panel is unanimous in its view that when the
Complaint was launched, those responsible for the Complaint, the New
Zealand Government, were well aware that a claim to trademark and
service mark rights in respect of NEW ZEALAND was baseless. Moreover,
that document makes it clear that the New Zealand Government regards
the protection of country names (qua country names) as being outside
the scope of the Policy and does not approve of the Policy being
extended to cover those country names, which are not trademarks."

The Panel further ruled: "The Complaint is dismissed and the Panel
upholds the allegation of reverse domain name hijacking."

In October another WIPO UDRP Panel dealt with a complaint by TradeNZ
in respect of "newzealand.biz". This case was dealt with under the
"sunrise" provisions of the new generic top level domain ".biz" which
assessed competing claims for new names. In this case the original
registrant  iSMER in the UK was found to have registered in "bad
faith" and the ruling was "… that newzealand.biz should be transferred
to Complainant, Her Majesty the Queen, in right of her Government in
New Zealand…"

InternetNZ was concerned by the "newzealand.biz" ruling as it seemed
to conform to a series of rulings by UDRP Panels in which small
registrants were overwhelmed by the power of the complainants - in
this case, Her Majesty the Queen. Her Majesty may have been amused,
but no statements were issued.

References:
"newzealand.com" ruling - 
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/d2002-0754.html
"newzealand.biz" ruling - 
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/2002/dbiz2002-00270.html


Ends


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E-mail: david@farrar.com
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