[WSIS CS-Plenary] IPR : Strategic priorities for WGIG

[Robin Gross]

Federico Heinz wrote:

> ...and that's exactly why neither patents, nor copyrights or trademarks
> belong in WGIG. ICANN's attempts at "protecting trademarks in the domain
> name space" (the infamous "Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy") amount,
> in the words of Enrique Chaparro, to "a supranational legal framework
> [...] without the provisions of due process and well beyond its charter,
> in a field that is already covered by the law of sovereign countries".

This is a great statement about ICANN's UDRP (and ICANN in general). And 
it would be a real win, if we could persuade the WGIG report to say such 
a thing.

It is precisely because the various laws dealing with patents, 
copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, etc. are causing so much harm to 
the development of the Internet and people's ability to use the Internet 
to improve their lives, that this discussion belongs directly in the 
WGIG's cross hairs.

The WGIG cannot make substantive law on these issues, that is certainly 
true (nor should it, as you rightly point out).  But it could 
*recognize* how, particularly on the Internet, over broad rights regimes 
(or the institutions that create them) are on a collision course with 
freedom of expression and competition values (or national sovereignty).

Robin