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Happy New Year, Kathy. Thank you for raising this for discussion.</div>
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The article suggests that this service is being introduced through contractual amendments rather than via a PDP, raising concerns about whether policy outcomes are effectively being shaped through implementation pathways that... may bypass consensus. It also
prompts questions about the longer-term implications should similar models be adopted or replicated by other registry operators.</div>
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I am aware of traditional blocking services, such as GlobalBlock, which are explicitly tied to verified trademark rights. In that context, an additional concern is how this proposed service would interact with, complement, or potentially duplicate existing
rights protection mechanisms available to <b>actual </b>trademark holders. There is a need for clarity on whether trademark owners would be expected to engage with this new service in addition to existing protections, or whether they would retain priority
treatment, differentiated access, or cost considerations that appropriately reflect their established legal rights.</div>
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The proposal also notes that third parties may be able to request unblocking; however, the mechanisms for doing so are not clearly articulated. I could not find any detail on applicable criteria, appeal processes, timelines, or whether any independent or neutral
review would be involved; raising due process concerns.</div>
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More broadly, allowing existing domain registrants without verified rights to block identical strings across multiple TLDs could result in de facto exclusivity in the absence of a rights-validation framework. This risks enabling string capture based primarily
on first-mover advantage rather than legitimate interest.</div>
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Taken together, these issues raise broader concerns ranging from how we arrived at these amendments, to questions of due process and, ultimately,
<b>trust in the DNS</b>. If strings can be broadly blocked without rights verification, access to domain names for non-commercial, critical, or expressive uses could be unfairly limited. From a Human Rights perspective, civil society actors, small organizations,
or other variations of small end users may be disproportionately affected, especially in situations where string meaning is contextual or generic (for example,
<i>greenearth.com</i> operated by a commercial entity versus <i>greenearth.org</i> used by an environmental NGO). These issues would benefit from closer scrutiny.</div>
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Kind regards,</div>
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<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 150, 136);"><b>Mebaghandu Christabel, mIEEE sMNCS
fNSIG .</b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);"><b>Chief Technology Officer</b></span></p>
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Civil Center for Peace, Justice and Development</div>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">+23408161278131</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: blue;"><a style="color: blue; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class="x_x_OWAAutoLink" id="OWAee02d180-b2ea-15df-956f-262a055b4c7b" href="mailto:meb.christabel@ccpjd.org">meb.christabel@ccpjd.org</a></span></p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> NCSG-Discuss <NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> on behalf of Kathy Kleiman <kathy@DNRC.TECH><br>
<b>Sent:</b> 08 January 2026 23:57<br>
<b>To:</b> NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU <NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU><br>
<b>Subject:</b> GoDaddy to offer domain blocking to people who don’t have trademarks</font>
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<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Dear All,</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Happy New Year! I hope 2026 is a wonderful one for you, your families, and our NCSG.</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">I share the following news as something we should know about and discuss.</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b>----------------------------</b></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">GoDaddy to offer domain blocking to people who don’t have trademarks</span></b></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">GoDaddy’s registry arm wants to offer registrants the ability to block others from registering their brands in other TLDs, even if they don’t own a registered
trademark.</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><<a href="https://domainincite.com/31454-godaddy-to-offer-domain-blocking-to-people-who-dont-have-trademarks" class="x_moz-txt-link-freetext">https://domainincite.com/31454-godaddy-to-offer-domain-blocking-to-people-who-dont-have-trademarks</a>></span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">----------------------------</span></p>
<p class="x_MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span lang="EN" style="font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif">Best, Kathy</span></p>
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