04 April
2003
Eversheds e80
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The e-news service from Eversheds - Business Lawyers in Europe
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Singapore - Withdrawal of .sg Trademark Application
We previously reported in e80 on 3 March 2003 that Singapore's
central
registrar and administrator of all ".sg" domain names, the Singapore
Network Information Centre (SGNIC), had applied to trademark the ".sg"
country code top level domain (ccTLD). In an about
turn of events, Mr Lim
Choon Sai of SGNIC sent an e-mail to ICANN General Counsel Mr Louis Touton
on 14 March 2003 notifying him that SGNIC had decided to withdraw its
trademark applications for the ".sg" ccTLD.
SGNIC's original reason for seeking to trademark the
".sg" ccTLD was,
amongst others, a protective measure to prevent third parties from
applying to trademark it. The example of Netregistry's trademark
registration of "au.com" in Australia was cited. Further impetus
for
SGNIC's action came from the perception that ICANN's polices in this
regard were unclear.
As the situation now stands, ICANN's Governmental Advisory
Committee is
currently deliberating on an appropriate policy statement to all domain
name registrars on how to address situations where their ccTLD's are made
the subject of a trademark registration by another entity. It is hoped
that this will be released shortly.
Leslie Tham,
Khattar Wong & Partners
Singapore
leslietham@khattarwong.com
http://www.eversheds.com/about/asia.asp
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