Comments in Response to the Secretariat's Questionnaire on the Protection of Country Names in the Domain Name System
Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks
WIPO
34 Chemin des Colombettes
1211 Genève 20
SUISSE
Telefax 41-22 733 5428
Questionnaire on the Protection of Country Names in the Domain Name System
Having consulted specialists in some institutions (State Symbolic Department of the Chancellory of State, Estonian Informatics Centre), the Estonian Patent Office formulates answers to the questionnaire as follows.
(i) As there exists a lot of official or quasi-official standards for identification a state/country, the protection should not be limited to only one of them; both the complete name (e.g. Eesti Vabariik - Republic of Estonia) and the shorter version (e.g. Eesti - Estonia) should be protected in principle.
(ii) The country names should be protected at least in national language (i.e. official name) and in the languages of international commerce (e.g. the official languages of UN); as regards the translation the broader protection of country names similar to the protection of well-known trade marks under the Paris Convention however may be considered a good example.
(iii) The protection should be extended to all domains (both gTLD and ccTLD, both existing and future).
(iv) Despite of what is said under (iii) any rights acquired in good faith before the date of worldwide adoption of the principles of protection of country names should constitute exceptional seniority rights.
(v) UDRP can be considered the competent forum.
(vi) In principle the protection should extend to identical names/indications. However, where there is a caused damage or fraud, the protection might be broader.
(vii) Although the position of Estonian Informatics Centre is to prefer the absolute protection, the Patent Office finds the protection should be dependent upon bad faith. For example, a tourism bureau of one country might have the possibility to use the country names as components of its domain names.
Yours sincerely
Matti Päts
Director General