Building
user confidence on the Internet
Paris, 10
June 1997 - Despite
all the hype about the explosive growth of trading via the Internet, business
users will require effective safeguards for confirming the identity of prospective
commercial partners and their authenticity. ICC experts have drawn up recommendations
for achieving this.
A statement on trademarks
and the Internet focuses on this crucial issue of identification. A correspondent
on the Internet must know the source of a communication and with whom he is
dealing. The statement, by the Commission on Intellectual and Industrial Property,
makes recommendations designed to ensure that domain names genuinely indicate
the true identity of the domain name holder.
The ICC experts call for
international coherence between the different systems of allocation of domain
names. All national and international domain name registration should take account
of the concerns of trademark protection. Their statement is mainly directed
to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the International
Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) grouping domain names registries, trade mark representatives
and other interested parties.
Another essential is that
the system should allow persons or entities with intellectual property rights,
trademarks, trade names or other distinctive signs to intervene as early as
possible to protect their interests.
Calling for international
guidelines on trademark infringement on the Internet, the ICC says mere registration
of a trademark as a domain name without the authorization of the owner could
be sufficient to constitute an infringement.
ICC
Statement on Trademarks on the Internet
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