Specific Trademark Issues
Specific Trademark Issues (STI, also Special Trademark Issues) is a resolution adopted by the Generic Names Support Organization (GNSO) on 28 October 2009. It was originally proposed by the GNSO when ICANN sent a letter to the GNSO requesting to review the policy implications of specific trademark protection mechanisms for the sake of the proposed new gTLD Program.
STI-DT[edit | edit source]
The GNSO created the STI-DT for the task of analyzing the specific rights protection mechanisms, which needed to be included in the Draft Application Guidebook or DAG.. It consisted of the following representatives:
- Representatives from each Stakeholder Group
- Nominating Committee Appointees
- GAC
Members consisted mostly of attorneys and others with experience in trademark law and the Internet.
Principles[edit | edit source]
The STI works on the following principles:
- Unanimous consensus
- Rough consensus: This is a situation wherein there is a small minority that disagrees about a topic but majority agree
- Strong support: This means that there is a large number of opposition
- No consensus [1]
Work[edit | edit source]
The STI after its creation was assigned a huge task which included processing and addressing trademark issues as well as providing solutions to the benefit of both the non-commercial users as well as those of the trademark owners and the DNS community as a whole. [2]
The STI published a report in which it provided its vital recommendations regarding the creation of a Trademark Clearinghouse and Uniform Rapid Suspension procedure. It was mostly created to protect the trademarks in the new gTLD program. [3]
ICANN and STI[edit | edit source]
The ICANN created the STI to provide the recommendations about how the trademark issues should be handled keeping in mind the new gTLDs program and expansion of the Root. [2]
References[edit | edit source]