WIPO Internet Domain Name Process

Report: Asuncion Regional Consultation

On October 13, 1998, the sixth regional consultation within the framework of the WIPO Internet Domain Name Process was held in Asuncion, Paraguay at the Hotel Yacht y Golf Club. The consultation was co-sponsored by the Inter-American Association of Industrial Property (ASIPI).

The meeting was attended on behalf of WIPO by Ernesto Rubio, Director, Cooperation for Development Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean and Yolanda Huerta, Legal Officer, Office of Legal and Organization Affairs. The panel of experts assisting WIPO in its work was represented by Santiago Bustamante, Ecuador, President of ASIPI, and Oscar Sznajder, Argentina, Member of the Latin American and Caribbean Country Code Top Level Domain Organization (LACTLD) and Coordinator of NIC AR. Opening remarks were presented by Ernesto Rubio, closing remarks were given by Martin Michaus, Mexico, President of the Trademark Committee of ASIPI. The session was chaired by Felipe Claro, Chile.

The presentations and open 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. Issues that attracted particular attention were the need to develop an effective and reliable dispute resolution system other than court litigation, to study the desirability of the creation of an international database containing information on domain names at the national and international levels, the appropriateness of reorganizing the DNS by creating suitable subcategories under the TLDs, the feasibility of requiring prior searches to avoid conflicts with registered trademarks, the need for protection of famous and well-known marks and for appropriate remedies in cases of infringement, and the desirability that the registries of ccTLDs adhere to the recommendations resulting from this international process.

A recording was made of the proceedings. The transcript will shortly be made available to the public on the WIPO web site, at http://wipo2.wipo.int, under the section "Consultations."

Speakers