On April 23-26, the WIPO Standing Committee on Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT), which oriGIn follows regularly as an observer, discussed an interesting survey on the existing state of play of GIs in the DNS.
The chapter on country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) – see page 17 and the Annex – is interesting for GIs. Out of 86 ccTLDs dispute resolution policies analyzed, 14 mentions explicitly GIs as valid titles to active curative mechanisms arising from the attribution of second level domains; and 23 policies provide a general formulation, which seems not to exclude GIs, such as “all/other IPRs…” or “TMs, service marks and other distinctive signs..”.
This confirms that GIs can be protected in the DNS. Such protection can be provided as well in the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of gTLDs, such .com, .food, .coffee, etc. …, through a simple amendment of its policy, which would mention GIs or refer to intellectual property as a all.
This summary has been extracted from an “oriGIn Alert”, which is a service reserved exclusively to oriGIn members. Click here to join oriGIn
For more information about GIs at WIPO & GIs protection in DNS see the categories “World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)” & “GIs in gTLDs” in the section Policy and Advocacy
