NCSG Comment

As we have already declared in previous Reports related to intellectual property rights protection system (legislative, regulatory, etc.), based on state-of-the-art scholarship and reports about this thematic worldwide, questions related to balance need always to be asked when enforcing these rights.

In other words, are the rights holders protected while all the other interests involved are also being respected? Is there enough protection of the public interest, future rights holders, free speech, freedom of expression, fair use, and the rights of all to use dictionary words, generic words, common acronyms, and phrases, as well as their first and last names, when national or international legal rules do not already guarantee them?

Is due process protected in the actual ability of registrants to respond to the UDRP complaints that trademark holders, with complete choice of timing and forum, may bring? Are the balances that we, the early ICANN Community, created in theory and on paper with the UDRP - the world’s first all-virtual dispute forum- working out in practice? 

Besides those related to increasing the Report's clarity, almost all topics of this Public Comment can be traced back to this central idea and avoiding the system becoming increasingly one-sided, which should also be the cornerstone of any new policy or policy change related to the UDRP and similar mechanisms. Better effective measures should be developed against known or repeated offenders without harming good-faith registrants who are subject to the procedure.

For detailed comments, please read our comment attached.