[atlarge-discuss] Fw: INTA: The 125th Annual Meeting

["Jkhan" <Jkhan@MetroMgr.com>]

Subject: Corporate Services News - INTA: The 125th Annual Meeting 
Date: Friday, April 25, 2003 12:00 PM
Insider Comment 


INTA: The 125th Annual Meeting 

 David Butler, Director, European and Asian Sales  

David Butler, Director, European and Asian Sales
Thousands of trademark practitioners are getting ready for the International 
Trademark Association's (INTA) regular annual meeting to be held May 3 - 7 in 
Amsterdam. This year it has a special twist - the event will mark the 125th 
anniversary of the organization that has over the years become a true global 
player with the membership that stretches to over 160 countries. 

"Over the last decade we have truly become a global organization," says Daryl 
G. Grecich, Director of INTA's Marketing and Communications. "Currently 54% 
of our membership is outside Northern America. With 24%, Europe is our second 
largest area, following by East Asia with 13% and Latin America with 11%."

To reflect an increasingly international nature of its membership, the event 
has, for the first time, been taken out of Northern America: this year's 
venue is Amsterdam, Holland, a gorgeous city and one of the most 
internationally renowned trading capitals of the world. With more than 6,000 
participants, the meeting is by far the largest gathering of trademark 
professionals in the world and a unique opportunity to discuss a wide range 
of trademark issues, conduct important business, network with colleagues from 
around the world, renew old friendships and make new ones and of course, 
enjoy the sights of the host city. 

But it will also be a chance for the members of INTA's committees to get 
together and talk about the type of work they contribute to the association. 
Solution providers will have an opportunity to show their best practice at a 
special exhibition and there will be offers of educational programming. In 
fact, the educational programming has been expanded this year, special 

presentations include an argument before a mock panel of the European Court 
of Justices: an international alternative dispute resolution proceeding, 
international harmonization, updates on major case law and trade dress 
issues, the Madrid Protocol and the Community Trade Mark.

David Butler, Director, European and Asian Sales at Register.com's Corporate 
Services Division, says, "INTA is the premier event for IP specialists. 
All of the marketplace is under one roof making it ideal for our clients to 
network with other like-minded individuals and share experiences and 
opinions." Register.com will be present at the event to exhibit its range of 
domain name portfolio management and protection services. "In particular, it 
is an opportunity to demonstrate to clients and other IP owners the recent 
advances we have made with our online portfolio management tool," explains 
David. "Feedback we receive at INTA is very valuable to us and enables us to 
ensure we continue to develop our services to meet the needs of the IP 
community." 

  _____  


NIC News 

gTLD News 


.pro 

April 23 2003 marks the launch of the Sunrise Period for defensive name 
registrations under .Pro, the new top-level domain for professionals. The 
Sunrise Period gives trademark holders an opportunity to reserve their marks 
in the .Pro TLD before it becomes available for public registration on July 1 2003. 


ccTLD News 


 China 

In China, since the deregulation of third level domains on December 15 2002, 
there has been an approximate 180,000 leap in registrations to 300,000 at the 
end of March (source: NeuStar) as companies utilize the opportunity to secure 
their names in this growing Internet market place. 


 Netherlands 

Similarly, a dramatic rise in registrations has occurred since the 
deregulation of .nl on January 29 this year, as companies based outside of 
the territory were able to obtain a locally recognized domain name for the 
first time. At the end of March, the total registrations were 860,964 - a 
rise of 57,519 since the end of 2002 (source: SIDN). 


 Spain 

ES-NIC, the registry operator for .es domains in Spain, is planning to 
introduce 5 new subdomains under .es. The date when regulations will be 
approved is to be confirmed, although it is expected that it will be at the 
end of April or beginning of May. The third-level domains under .es to be 
introduced are: 


1) .com.es: for commercial entities. Open to foreign applicants who will be 
able to register any domain. 

2) .nom.es: for individuals. Open to foreign applicants. 

3) .org.es: non-commercial organizations. Open to foreign applicants. 

4) .gob.es: for Spanish government bodies only. 

5) .edu.es: for Spanish academic institutions only. 


The launch is planned as follows: 

Phase 1: Open for owners of second level domains. Any company that has 
previously registered a domain under the second level (e.g. mycompany.es) 
will be able to apply for the same domain under .com.es, .nom.es and .org.es. 

Phase 2: (20 days after Phase 1) Open for Spanish governmental bodies only. 

Phase 3: (20 days after Phase 2) Open for registered Spanish companies. 

Phase 4: (20 days after Phase 3) Registrations open to everyone on a 
first-come, first-served basis.

  _____  

Industry News 

At ICANN's meeting in Rio de Janeiro at the end of March, the organization 
considered the Names Council Whois Task Force's final report. The following 
issues were covered: 


Transfers: The Names Council Transfers Task Force final report recommends 
moving to an auto-ack system. Auto-ack assumes that if the admin contact for 
the domain name being transferred does not respond within the allotted time 
to a confirmation from the old registrar, as long as the new registrar had 
confirmed with the authorized contact, then the transfer is automatically 
released. At the meeting, ICANN sent the recommendation to the Government 
Advisory Committee prior to any further action. Should the process go ahead, 
the negative side of this is that it would potentially be less secure for 
corporate names if they are not being effectively watched by the admin 
contact or "locked down" with the current registrar. However, for corporate 
clients wishing to transfer portfolios between registrars, it makes the 
process easier and quicker to manage. Implementation however is not expected 
for several months. 

Bulk Whois: The Names Council recommended the deletion of bulk Whois for 
marketing purposes. Not mentioned in the recommendations, but discussed at 
the meeting was the separation of the public Whois database into a more 
limited public database and another full database for selected viewing (e.g. 
by law enforcement, IP, registrars and registries). Currently, registrars are 
voting to support this move by placing the issue on agenda of the GNSO 

Council's privacy task force. 

Whois Verifications and Privacy: The GNSO Council recommends reiteration of 
accurate whois requirements. There is impetus on the Council for data 
verification, pending review of the privacy issues connected to the Whois 
database. The Council is establishing a privacy task force to review privacy 
concerns in the Whois environment and the effect on future Whois accuracy 
requirements. They have six months to report prior to further steps being 
taken on this issue. 

  _____  
  _____