Trademark Group Hijacks Fresh TLD Comments

INTA asks members to submit comments in opposition to Expressions of Interest for fresh TLDs.

Last month ICANN opened up a comment period on its Draft Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Model (EOI), which I’ve written regarding ahead of.

I checked in today hoping to see some constructive comments on the EOI draft, such as costs and procedures. Instead, I was greeted with short, terse comments such as:

“I do not support ICANN’s acceptance of pre-registrations for fresh gTLDs.”

Wow, comments like that are really going to help ICANN resolve this!

Regarding a dozen comments basically say that ICANN shouldn’t go forward with fresh TLDs, at least yet ahead of resolving trademark concerns, and thus pre-registrations are premature. The comments are from big names, too: Lockheed Martin, H.J. Heinz, etc.

It was rather suspicious that these groups suddenly chimed in, until I saw this comment:

“As an INTA member I have been encouraged to give my opinion on the pre-registration issue”.

Aha. INTA stands for International Trademark Association. As it turns out, INTA sent an email to its members asking them to post a comment during the comment period.

Now, I have no problem with people posting comments. That’s the point of a comment period. But it would be nice if the people commenting actually understood the issue and what was being asked, rather than saying merely “I oppose”. It’s kind of like when an advocacy group asks its members to sign a form letter to a politician. The politician puts less weight on form letters than unique, well-reasoned letters.