ICA Blog

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has asked for input from small businesses who believe they have been victimized by trademark “bullies”. Since every individual domainer and the vast majority of the commercial entities serving domain investors and developers are small businesses, this is an open invitation for domain industry participants to share their stories with the government in …

During its November 18th Executive Business Meeting the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out an amended version of S. 3804, Chairman Leahy’s domain blocking legislation. The vote in favor of reporting the bill for full Senate Consideration was a unanimous 18-0. The amended version of the bill omits the proposal for a Justice Department “blacklist” of domains it believes are dedicated …

To register or renew a domain name a registrant must utilize the services of an ICANN-accredited registrar, all of which must enter into a standard binding contract with ICANN known as the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). But, rather incredibly, that same domain can be extinguished or transferred by a UDRP provider that has been empowered by ICANN but which has …

Veterans of the legislative process have often been heard to observe that the one law that never gets repealed is the law of unintended consequences. That is, new laws not only often fall short of their intended effect but also produce negative fallout. The classic example is the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, otherwise known as Prohibition, which fell …

The intersection of domain names and law enforcement concerns was the focus of two very high level  meetings  held recently in Washington, DC. The discussions that ensured mark a demarcation line that will change the tenor of all future discussions of the rights and responsibilities of DNS participants. On September 28th, a group of leading registries and registrars – many …

Congress ended its regular session in the last week of September with no action taken by the Senate Judiciary Committee to amend and report S. 3804, proposed legislation to block and shut down services to domains alleged to be abetting copyright and trademark infringement. However, shortly before adjournment Committee staff circulated a revised “Managers’ Amendment” that made several significant changes …

On the eve of its Board retreat in Norway to consider final matters to be resolved before the opening of the application window for new GTLDs, the ICA communicated with the Chairman and the CEO of ICANN. Our September 23rd letter reiterated two prior ICA positions: Refrain from reopening the trademark protections for new gTLDs that have been put in …

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not act on S 3804, the proposal to let the U.S. government seize or otherwise block access to and severely impair allegedly infringing domains on a global basis, after Ranking Republican Member Jeff Sessions exercised the automatic deferral option at the Committee’s September 23rd Business Meeting. But the bill is back on the agenda for …

On September 20, 2010 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, joined by nine other Senators, introduced S. 3804, the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act”. If enacted, this proposal would expedite Department of Justice (DOJ) actions against domains that abet the sale or distribution of unauthorized copyrighted materials and counterfeit goods. It would also give U.S. law extraterritorial effect by …

Sell a trademark as a keyword for directed search or online auctions and make $billions. But use a trademark in a domain name for direct search and lose the domain, or worse. The gap between how trademark law treats the two species of search has grown wider in the wake of several landmark 2010 trademark law decisions – and provides …