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Having watched the IOC exercise its IP rights in Canada I agree
that the IOC and RC issues should be handled differently. In
Canada the IOC tended to worry about “free loading” off of the IOC
brand, and was overly aggressive toward ethnic mom and pop
restaurants with “too Olympic sounding” business names, even if
their existence predated the awarding of the 2010 Winter Games to
Vancouver. The IOC is not the RC and should be treated
separately. [Oh! in a key Canadian case a family run Greek
restaurant in Vancouver beat back legal attacks by the IOC]<br>
<br>
Lori writes about finding the right balance of consumer protection
and free speech. The protection being sought here is protection
from fraud, and not simply from counterfeit products. I would
understand this to mean the balance between protection from fraud
and access to free speech, based on the wording of domain names,
and not simply consumer protection as normally understood. We
should not always just label ourselves consumers, we are more. <br>
<br>
Sam L.<br>
<br>
On 01/07/2014 2:09 PM, Lori Schulman wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
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color:#1F497D">I echo Evan’s sentiments. I have been on the
enforcement end of this issue and it is a public threat with
regard to fraud -- especially in times of natural disaster.
Consumers are bilked out of millions of dollars from very
clever squatters. Denying some extra measures of protection
do not necessarily help civil society when the opportunities
for fraud grow exponentially. I think that having a
reasoned, balanced approach makes sense. Separating IOC
from RC also makes sense because they are administered
differently and there is a different level of public
interest involved. While NCSG may disagree with the current
proposals for protection of IGO’s and NGO’s, I think that
there is room for meaningful compromise that achieves the
balance between consumer protection and concerns about
overreaching on intellectual property rights and inhibiting
free speech.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D">I think that it is worthwhile to note that
trademark rights evolved from concepts related to consumer
protection. I will be the first to admit that brand
owners frequently lose sight of that very important fact and
that there is IP overreach. However, if we go back to the
root of the issue and acknowledge that trademark rights
were implemented to protect consumers from fraud and
confusion then we are serving the public interest. I
believe that finding the right balance of consumer
protection and free speech is a core value of what are
trying to achieve on behalf of civil society and the name
space.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
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color:#1F497D">Lori</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
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<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"
style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><b><span
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color:#76923C">Lori S. Schulman</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;
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color:black"> · General Counsel<br>
1703 North Beauregard Street</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"
style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;
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color:black">Alexandria, VA 22311-1714</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"
style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;
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</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;
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color:#1F497D"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Lori.Schulman@ascd.org">Lori.Schulman@ascd.org</a><br>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
------------------------------------------------
"It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured
in an unjust state" -Confucius
------------------------------------------------
Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar)
Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3
email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Lanfran@Yorku.ca">Lanfran@Yorku.ca</a> Skype: slanfranco
blog: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com">http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com</a>
Phone: +1 613-476-0429 cell: +1 416-816-2852</pre>
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