Report: Cairo regional consultation
On November 1, 1998, the tenth regional consultation within the framework of the WIPO Internet Domain Name Process was held in Cairo, Egypt. The consultation was hosted by the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center, the Center for Intellectual Property Studies, the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center and the Internet Society of Egypt.
The meeting was attended on behalf of WIPO by Mr. David Muls, Senior Legal Officer, Electronic Commerce Section, Office of Legal and Organization Affairs and Ms. Ola Zahran, Consultant, Office of Legal and Organization Affairs. The panel of experts assisting WIPO in the work was represented by Dr. Hisham El Sherif (Chairman, Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center), Mr. Geert Glas (Chair, INTA Internet Sub-Committee), Mr. Ousmane Kane (Executive Director, African Regional Centre for Technology), Dr. Frederick Mostert (President, International Trademark Association) and Mr. Boudewijn Nederkoorn (Chairman, RIPE CENTR).
The consultation was opened by Dr. Hisham El Sherif. The presentations and ensuing discussions covered the four main topics to be addressed by the WIPO Internet Domain Name Process: dispute prevention, dispute resolution, protection of famous and well-known marks, and introduction of new gTLDs. The table below lists those who made presentations or interventions during the course of the meeting.
The issues that attracted particular attention concerned the need for greater international participation, including participation by Africa, in all aspects of the reform of the DNS; the need to consider local law requirements when establishing measures and procedures to prevent and resolve domain name disputes; the desirability of establishing administrative procedures to resolve domain name disputes; the relationship between such procedures and court procedures; the need to introduce further classifications in the structure of domain names and the means of enforcing those classifications; the development of technological solutions that may alleviate the problems resulting from the interface between trademarks and domain names; the practice of registering generic terms as domain names; and the desirability of providing special protection for famous and well-known marks.
A recording was made of the proceedings, and a transcript is available.
| NAME | TITLE | ORGANIZATION |
|---|---|---|
| Akabani, Sami | Associate Vice President for Computing | American University in Cairo |
| Arida, Christine | Communication Engineer | IDSC/RITSEC |
| Azmi, Karim | Lawyer | |
| Badr, Osman, Ph.D. | Director of Egyptian Universities Network | Supreme Council of Universities |
| Brown, John | Director, Franchise Development & Operations | House of Donuts International |
| El Shooky, Effat | Executive Director | RITSEC |
| El-Kassas, Sherif | Associate Director | American University in Cairo |
| Elibrachy, Bahieldin | Partner | Ibrachy & Dermarkar |
| Ezzedin, Wafik | Vice President | Prosys International |
| Faramawy, Ali | General Manager | Microsoft Corporation Egypt |
| Ms. Thanaa Mahmoud Gohar | Director-Manager Information Department |
Ministry of Trade and Supply |
| Hamza, Samir M. | Attorney-at-law | Helmy & Hamza |
| Ibrahim Mohamed Abd El Moniem, Ahmed | Engineer | |
| Ismail, Magda | Assistant Manager | Information Highway Unit, IDSC |
| Kamel, Tarek | Communication Department Manager | RITSEC |
| Loutfi, Hossan | Professor and attorney-at-law | Shalakany Law Office |
| Ncube, Benson | Network Engineer | Zimbabwe Posts and Telecommunication, ZPTC, Data & Telegraphy |
| Radwan, Raafat | CEO | IDSC |
| Serageldine, Hoda Anis | President | Egyptian Association for Protection of Industrial Property (AEPPI) |
| Ahmad Nazif | Managing Director | Legislation and Development Information Service |