IOC to ICANN: just a friendly reminder that we’re important.
The International Olympic Committee has sent another letter to ICANN requesting that it be given “holier-than-thou” trademark rights and special protections for the launch of new top level domain names.
As you may recall, in April 2009 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent a letter to ICANN stating that its trademarks receive special international protection, and that it was worried it would have to extend effort to protect its marks as new top level domains are rolled out. It threatened to “take action against ICANN for damages resulting to the IOC or the Olympic Movement from the implementation of the gTLD proposal.”
The IOC has followed up with multiple letters during comment periods. It just sent another letter (pdf) to ICANN, requesting a meeting to discuss special protection:
“Due to the unique nature of the Olympic trademarks which are protected around the world in many different ways, measures should be taken by ICANN to have them protected accordingly in the scheme of ICANN’s projects.”
Um, sure. Get in line, guys. Just about every Fortune 500 has trademarks “protected around the world in many different ways”. ICANN should politely decline this meeting and invite IOC to attend the next ICANN meeting in Brussels.
IOC is also apparently concerned about .sport, asking ICANN to discuss the “status of the development of the new extension .sport”.
That’s an easy request: there is no status. Applications aren’t open yet and ICANN has nothing to do with .sport and potential applicants for this TLD.
But to be fair, one of the potential applicants for .sport wants ICANN to step in to prevent competitors such as .basketball.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.
Related posts: