Comments in Response to the Secretariat's Questionnaire on the Protection of Country Names in the Domain Name System
QUESTIONNAIRE
ON
THE PROTECTION OF COUNTRY NAMES
IN THE
DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM
(LATVIA)
(i) The name of a country could be identified by ISO Standard 3166. Both the long and short names of countries should be protected.
(ii) Country names could be protected in english (as dominating language on the Internet) and in the language of the particular country.
(iii) Any protection could be extended to all (both existing and future) domains.
(iv) If rights are acquired (domain name registration is made) in bad faith, the registration should be cancelled.
(v) The UDRP could be used as mechanism to implement protection of names of countries.
(vi) Any protection should extend also to misleading variations of country names.
(vii) Protection should be dependent upon a showing of bad faith.