Comments in Response to the Secretariat's Questionnaire on the Protection of Country Names in the Domain Name System
Trademark Office
State Administration for Industry and Commerce
People's Republic of China
Date: February 26,2002
Dear Sir or Madam:
I refer to your Circular No.6635 dated December 19,2001, inviting our Office to complete the attached Questionnaire on the Protection of Country Names in the Domain Name System before the end of February 2002.
Please find the attached Questionnaire completed by the Legal Affairs Division of our Office. Thank you for your cooperation.
With best regards.
Yours sincerely
AN Qinghu
Director General
Trademark Office
State Administration for Industry and Commerce
People's Republic of China
Questionnaire on the protection of country names
in the domain names system
Members of the Special Sessions of the Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications on the report of the Second WIPO Internet Domain Name Process are invited to submit to the Secretariat comments on the following questions regarding the protection of country names in the Domain Name System before the end of February 2002:
(i) How should the name of a country be identified (for example, by reference to the United Terminology Bulletin, ISO Standard 3166, or by some other method) and should both the long and short names of countries be protected?
In principle the name of a country should be identified according to the United Nations Terminology Bulletin, with reference to ISO Standard 3166.
Both the long and short names of countries should be protected
(ii) In what languages should country names be protected?
Country names should be protected at least in the official language (s) of the said country and all the six working languages of the United Nations.
(iii) To what domains should any protection be extended (for example, to all, both existing and future, gTLDs, only to future gTLDs, also to ccTLDs, etc.)?
The protection should be extended to both existing and future gTLDs and ccTLDs. It should include the existing domain names, because some country names have been improperly registered as domain names.
(iv) How should any alleged acquired rights be treated?
This protection should not bind the right of trademarks or designs which were acquired legally.
(v) What mechanism should be used to implement protection ( for example, the UDRP or some other mechanism )?
It is recommended that the UDRP should be used to implement the protection.
(vi) Should any protection extend to the exact country name only or also to misleading variations?
It is suggested that protection should be extended also to misleading variations. If only the exact country names are protected, the misleading variations will inevitably be taken advantage of and the original intention of the protection shall not be realized.
(vii) Should protection be absolute or should it be dependent upon a showing of bad faith?
On the basis of the determination of an accurate list of country names, we think the protection should be absolute and it should not be dependent upon a showing of bad faith, because it is hard to certify bad faith.
Moreover, since country names are known to the public, the act that a country name is registered as a domain name by a party other than the government of that country is sufficient to constitute bad faith.