There will be another round of applications for new gTLDs if all goes as planned, but it won’t be until at least 2020.”Speaking at this week’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), taking place in Geneva, the head of ICANN’s global domains division has pointed to 2020 as the earliest realistic timeframe for the next round of new gTLD applications,” according to a report in World Trademark Review. “However, questions remain as to whether it will be a round or a permanent window.”Akram Atallah gave an update on the new gTLDs and how the more than 100 IDN new gTLDs that have come online “important because a majority of the new internet users coming online in the next few years will be from economies using non-Latin scripts and alphabets”.Opening the discussion, WTR reports Atallah gave an overview of the reviews being undertaken in advance of the next set of applications. The first is a ‘competition, trust and choice review’, with Atallah noting: “We want to ensure that we have achieved our consumer goals before we start the next round.” This review seeks to ascertain the extent to which new gTLDs have promoted competition, trust and choice, evaluate the effectiveness of the application and evaluation processes, and consider safeguards to mitigate issues that have arisen. As part of this, a global consumer survey is due in June, with new studies into the registrant domain name landscape and the competitive effects associated with the program to follow in September.He also updated on a separate independent review of the Trademark Clearinghouse and a root stability study as well as a GNSO policy process.To read the World Trademark Review report in full, see:
www.worldtrademarkreview.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=530dc4ad-6bd7-4969-8a41-ec538340c852
Tag: World Trademark Review
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Second Round of New gTLD Applications Not Likely Till At Least 2020
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Concerns For Online Counterfeiting Rise While Domain Infringement Declines According To Trademark Practitioners: WTR Survey
Concerns over domain name infringement and cybersquatting have declined in importance for trademark practitioners over the last year, according to the latest annual Global Trademark Benchmarking Survey by World Trademark Review.The survey of over 550 trademark practitioners, both in-house and in private practice, found a majority (60.5%) of respondents stated their domain enforcement strategy hadnât changed in the last 12 months in light of the gTLD rollout. The figure was much the same for âcorporate respondents (59.4%). This is a nearly 10% higher figure than the year before (2014), and 30% higher than in 2011 (which was, of course, during the planning stages of the new gTLDs). On the flip-side, only 15.7% of practitioners said that their enforcement strategy had changed in the last 12 months due to the rollout (the highest figures since 2013).â
âPerhaps more tellingly, when in-house respondents were asked to rank a variety of issues in terms of the threat they pose to trademark portfolios, domain name infringement slipped five places (from being the second most threatening issue in 2014 to seventh last year)â according to a post on the WTR blog. âThis isnât to say all online threats were downgraded in this yearâs survey; in fact, the online sale of counterfeits rose from sixth to top place in the list. However, it does suggest that trademark counsel strategies for domain name infringement are in place and deemed to be working.â
WTR note that previous surveys found there were concerns on the impact on budgets and enforcement strategies over the potential impact of new gTLDs. However they believe itâs likely âthe survey shows this relative calm a sign that the worst fears of counsel did not become a reality, that pre-existing strategies were well-suited to the expanded online space [and] that enforcement approaches have already been cannily adapted to cater to the new environment.â
For more information, see the WTR blog post at:
http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Blog/detail.aspx?g=7259ed76-544c-49fa-b7d5-4ba0d075c51a