New initiative to tackle cybersquatting
The European Commission joins forces with the World intellectual property organisation (WIPO) on 23 April in a regional consultation in Brussels addressing improper use of Internet domain names, or 'cybersquatting'. The consultation will seek the opinions of operators in the areas of trade names, personal names, international non-proprietary names for pharmaceutical substances, name of international inter-governmental organisations and geographical terms. Representatives of the public and private sectors, public interest groups, academics and intellectual property practitioners are all encouraged to participate in the event. The findings of the consultation will be passed on to individual countries, as well as ICANN, the Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers.