<div dir="auto"><div>I wonder how much.africa is implementing the trade mark clearing house and whether this debate is relevant for Africa. <div dir="auto"><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br><br><br type="attribution"><blockquote class="quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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EFF is now encouraging registrants to avoid domains that are subject
to the TMCH. From
<a class="m_-2687448132097914786moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/how-threats-against-domain-names-used-censor-content" target="_blank">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/<wbr>2017/07/how-threats-against-<wbr>domain-names-used-censor-<wbr>content</a>:<br>
<br>
"Today EFF and Public Knowledge are releasing a whitepaper titled <a href="https://www.eff.org/files/2017/07/26/domain_registry_whitepaper.pdf" target="_blank">Which
Internet registries offer the best protection for domain owners?</a>
...<br>
<br>
To draw one example of out of our whitepaper, if you're running a
website to criticize an established brand and you use that brand as
part of your domain name, it may be wise to avoid registering it in
a top-level domain that offers special rights and procedures to
brand owners, that could result in your domain name being wrongly
taken away or could embroil you in dispute settlement proceedings.<br>
<br>
This probably means you'll want to think twice about registering in
any of the newer global top-level domains (gTLDs), which provide
brand owners access to a privately-run Trademark Clearinghouse that
gives them veto powers that go far beyond those they would receive
under the trademark law of the United States or those of most other
countries.<br>
<br>
For example, under U.S. trademark law, if a trademark applicant
sought to register an ordinary word such as smart, forex, hotel,
one, love, cloud, nyc, london, abc, or luxury, they would have to
specify the category of goods or services they provide, and
protection for the mark might only be extended to its use in a logo,
rather than as a plain word. Yet each of the plain words above has
been registered in the<span> </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/icanns-special-privileges-trademark-owners-are-theworst" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:normal" target="_blank">Trademark Clearinghouse</a>, to prevent them being used
in <em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:italic;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">any<span> </span></em>of the new gTLDs without
triggering a warning to prospective registrants about possible
infringement.<br>
<br>
This applies regardless of whether the planned usage covers the same
category of goods or services as the original trademark—indeed there
isn't even any way for the registrant to find out what that category
was, or even which country accepted the mark for registration,
because the contents of the Trademark Clearinghouse database are
secret. And since<span> </span><a href="https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-02-23-en" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:normal" target="_blank">94% of prospective registrants abandon</a><span> </span>their
attempted registration of a domain after receiving a trademark
warning, this has a drastic chilling effect on speech. <br>
<br>
EFF is currently participating in an<span> </span><a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/icann" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(102,102,102);text-decoration:underline;word-wrap:normal" target="_blank">ICANN</a><span> </span>working
group fighting to ensure that brand owners' veto rights aren't
extended even further (for example to catch domains that include<span> </span><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:italic;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">typos</em><span> </span>of
brand names), and to prevent these outrageous rules being applied to
older gTLDs such as .com, .net, and .org. But for now, you can
minimize your exposure to trademark bullying by avoiding registering
your website in one of the new domains that is subject to these
unfair policies. Our whitepaper explains what to look for."<br>
<br>
<pre class="m_-2687448132097914786moz-signature" cols="72">--
Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Global Policy Analyst
Electronic Frontier Foundation
<a class="m_-2687448132097914786moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://eff.org" target="_blank">https://eff.org</a>
<a class="m_-2687448132097914786moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jmalcolm@eff.org" target="_blank">jmalcolm@eff.org</a>
Tel: 415.436.9333 ext 161
:: Defending Your Rights in the Digital World ::
Public key: <a class="m_-2687448132097914786moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.eff.org/files/2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt" target="_blank">https://www.eff.org/files/<wbr>2016/11/27/key_jmalcolm.txt</a>
PGP fingerprint: 75D2 4C0D 35EA EA2F 8CA8 8F79 4911 EC4A EDDF 1122</pre>
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