Intellectual Property Law

IP Justice Statement on ICANN’s Responsibility to Respect Human Rights

Posted on March 31, 2011
"Unfortunately ICANN?s lack of commitment to internationally recognized fundamental rights and freedoms threatens the healthy growth of the DNS and the global public interest. ICANN?s structure must be rooted in a firm foundation and a legally enforceable obligation to uphold basic rights...

Support Multi-Stakeholderism at ICANN & Sign the Petition for No Govt. Veto on Domain Names

Posted on February 24, 2011
The Internet Governance Project has published a very important petition against a governmental power-grab over of the Internet's Domain Name System. Governments are pushing ICANN for a "veto" right to prevent any top-level domain "for any reason". Sign the petition to support multi-stakeholder bottom-up consensus policy at ICANN instead.

IP Justice Comments on ICANN Plans for New Top-Level Domains: Keep the Core Neutral - ICANN Should Avoid Expanding Scope of Mission to Include Enforcing “Morality” and Fighting “Terrorism”

Posted on July 21, 2010
IP Justice submitted brief comments today to ICANN regarding its plan for introducing new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). Specifically, IP Justice raised concerns about policy proposals that threaten freedom of expression on the Internet and seek to expand ICANN's mission to include ensuring "Morality and Public Order" (MAPO) and preventing "terrorism" through personal background checks...

Updated Consolidated Text of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Posted on July 14, 2010
The full consolidated text of the ACTA agreement, dated July 1st 2010 from the Luzern round of negotiations, including the name of the negotiating parties along with their positions. Sourced from the civil liberties committee (LIBE) of the European Parliament.

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IP Justice Comments on ICANN Accountability & Transparency Concerns: Lack of Accountability to Non-Commercial Users Remains Problematic for ICANN?s Promise to Protect the Public Interest

Posted on July 14, 2010
IP Justice is deeply concerned that ICANN is insufficiently accountable to relevant non-commercial interests. Certain interests, such as business interests (in particular the trademark and domain name industries) are over-represented at ICANN both in structure and in practice...

Urgent Communique: International Experts Find that Pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens Public Interests

Posted on June 23, 2010
A gathering of over 90 legal academics, practitioners, and public interest organizations from 6 continents met at American University Washington College of Law last week to draft an Urgent Communique concerning the public interest aspects of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)...

Sign the International Civil Society Declaration on the Public Interest Concerns of the Proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

Posted on June 19, 2010
Please consider endorsing the International Civil Society Declaration, which was the result of a meeting in Washington, DC (16-18 June 2010) of over 90 academics from 5 continents, public interest organizations and other legal experts concerned with the public interest aspects of ACTA.

Statement of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) and the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) on Transparency and ICANN Staff Documents

Posted on May 21, 2010
ICANN's transparency commitment demands the adoption of a principle of default openness for all Board communications except in those specific instances where it is over-ridden, in writing, by the principle of personal privacy or an explicit requirement of confidentiality...

IP Justice Statement to ICANN on Need to Respect Decision of Independent Review Panel on .XXX Domain

Posted on May 10, 2010
IP Justice supports the swift adoption of the decision of the Independent Review Panel (IRP) by ICANN and the inclusion of the applied for .xxx domain name into the root. This IRP decision should not be, and cannot be, a referendum on pornography as some comments urge...

Copyright for Creativity - A Declaration for Europe

Posted on May 10, 2010
The Copyright for Creativity Declaration embodies a new approach to European copyright - an approach where everyone benefits, innovation is fostered, creativity is incentivised and rewarded and access to the fruits of the European creative spirit is improved for all Europeans...

2010 USTR Special 301 Report

Posted on April 30, 2010
United States Trade Representative (USTR) Special 301 Report: Who's been naughty and who's been nice to US intellectual property interests (according to the USTR)? 2010 Country "Watch" Lists.

Draft Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Finally Revealed

Posted on April 29, 2010
After 2 years of secret negotiations and numerous complaints about the lack of transparency in the treaty drafting process, on 21 April 2010 the US Trade Representative Office (USTR) finally released a draft of the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)...

Lack of Transparency Surrounding Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) Negotiations Causes Concern For Many Public Interest Groups

Posted on November 06, 2009
The proposed global treaty to address intellectual property rights in a digital environment spurs letters, petitions to US Obama Administration to open the process to public view. The public interest and the concerns of developing countries and small business have been left out of international treaty negotiation process to date providing a skewed proposal, a new leak has confirmed.

IP Justice and Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure File Amicus Brief to US Supreme Court on Software Patents

Posted on October 08, 2009
Two international intellectual property policy groups IP Justice and the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) filed an Amicus Curiae Brief in the United States Supreme Court in the Bilski v. Kappos case dealing with software patents...

US Agreement With ICANN Leaves Much Undone: The oversight of the Internet’s infrastructure will become more international under a new government agreement with ICANN. But many concerns remain unresolved (Information Week)

Posted on October 03, 2009
The US government appears to be loosening its grip on the governance of the Internet, a move welcomed by many. But critics see the government shirking its obligations to support free expression and free trade. ... ICANN can interfere with freedom of expression by censoring the domain name space and regulating the use of the space indirectly...

ICANN Accountability Post-JPA: No Meaningful Change Expected

Posted on October 01, 2009
While many are dancing in the streets over today's decision by the US Government to loosen some of its ties to ICANN as its a single governmental authority, I'm not convinced this decision will change much on a practical level. The Affirmation of Commitments was signed today by ICANN and the US Government to replace the Joint Project Agreement, and expand oversight to a more international community...

ICANN Staff Up To Same Old “Divide & Conquer” of Civil Society Strategy

Posted on September 22, 2009
I had a conversation recently with a person who had been actively engaged at ICANN in its early days but became disillusioned and disengaged after a few years because his participation lead him to the conclusion that ICANN staff manage the organization's board of directors and the "community" via the GNSO and the At-Large Advisory Committee...

Public Interest Groups in ICANN Appeal to New President For Fairer Treatment For Civil Society

Posted on September 03, 2009
The organization that represents Non-Commercial Internet Users in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) issued an open letter to the Board this week, expressing concern about the possible failure of ICANN's attempt to balance the representation of commercial and noncommercial interests.

ICANN GNSO Chair Joins the Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) to Support Civil Society at ICANN

Posted on August 24, 2009
GNSO Chair Avri Doria joined ICANN's Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) to support civil society at ICANN in its struggle for a stakeholder group charter that is drafted in a bottom-up fashion and considers the needs of noncommercial users of the Internet...

“Top Ten Myths About Civil Society Participation in ICANN” From the Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC)

Posted on August 21, 2009
ICANN Staff and the commercial constituencies at ICANN have been busy spreading mis-information about civil society participation at ICANN - largely to keep civil society and noncommercial interests marginalized. For example, ICANN is not allowing the noncommercial users to elect their representatives on the GNSO Policy Council and will instead "appoint" representatives, unlike all the other constituencies at ICANN...

Letter from Non-Commercial Users to ICANN Board of Directors and CEO on Stakeholder Group Charter Issue

Posted on August 18, 2009
This letter comes from nearly 150 individual and organizational members of ICANN?s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC). It is also endorsed by public interest groups outside of NCUC. We are all deeply concerned about the July 30, 2009 ICANN Board decisions regarding the restructuring of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)...

Will ICANN Listen to Civil Society and Respect Noncommercial Users?

Posted on July 26, 2009
Public comments on stakeholder group charters are in - again. Comments submitted to ICANN were overwhelmingly in favor of reinstating the consensus charter submitted by noncommercial users. The Internet Governance Project asks "Is ICANN Listening?" to civil society yet.

Scooby Doo and Mystery Crew Take on ICANN to Defend Noncommercial Users

Posted on July 24, 2009
Longtime ICANN participant Harold Feld's amusing tale of Scooby Doo and the Mystery Crew go to ICANN.

ICANN Injustices in Stakeholder Group Charters - Ask ICANN to Respect Democratic Process and Noncommercial Users

Posted on July 21, 2009
The public is invited to send an email to ICANN on the subject of the injustices of the draft charters proposed for the noncommercial and commercial stakeholder groups in the new GNSO. ICANN will accept public comment on the subject until 23 July. Send a comment to ICANN by sending an email to gnso-stakeholder-charters@icann...

Letter to Support Public Access to Tax-Payer Funded Research

Posted on July 21, 2009
Public Interest Organizations Thank US Senators Lieberman and Cornyn for Sponsoring Bill to Improve Public Access to Research Funded By Tax-Payers. IP Justice, Knowledge Ecology International, Electronic Frontier Foundation, OXFAM, Essential Action, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, are part of a broad coalition of groups ...

IP Justice in Financial Times on ICANN Being Driven by Commercial Interests

Posted on July 16, 2009
"Icann is full of people who work for corporations and think that Icann should be run like one. When I try to remind people that it is a not-for-profit public benefit organisation, they look at me like I am mad. Icann is dominated by commercial stakeholder groups" said Robin Gross, a cyberspace rights lawyer, and executive director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organisation...

Membership Roster of ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC)

Posted on July 13, 2009
Including Both Non-Commercial Organizations & Individuals.

Is ICANN Accountable to the Global Public Interest? ICANN Ignores Non-Commercial Users in Internet Policy Development Process

Posted on July 13, 2009
The message is clear. ICANN has forgotten who it works for - us - Internet users - including noncommercial users. Now is the time to remind ICANN that it must be accountable to the global public interest or it has no business in Internet governance...

IP Justice Comments on ICANN Proposal to Expand Trademarks in Domain Names

Posted on July 06, 2009
IP Justice submitted comments today in opposition to the proposals contained in the "IRT Report" a proposal from ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency to create new trademark rights to domain names that do not exist in law. ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) also filed comments with ICANN discussing the substantive problems with the proposal and also the procedural concerns, which led to the creation of a one-sided report...

IP Justice Comments on ICANN Proposal to Expand Trademarks in Domain Names

Posted on July 06, 2009
IP Justice submitted comments today in opposition to the proposals contained in the "IRT Report" a proposal from ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency to create new trademark rights to domain names that do not exist in law. ICANN's Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) also filed comments with ICANN discussing thesubstantive problems with the proposal and also the procedural concerns, which led to the creation of a one-sided report...

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