Institute for Internet Policy & Law @ Beijing Normal University

On October 20, 2013, Dr. Luca Castellani, Head of United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Regional Center for Asia Pacific (RCAP) and Prof. Guangju Chen, Vice President of Beijing Normal University (BNU) signed the Agreement to establish the Joint Certificate Program on International E-Commerce Law (JCP). Under the Agreement, both Parties are committed to jointly develop the JCP that is a complex of teaching, research and international cooperation on international e-commerce law. Dr. Castellani stated at the Signing Ceremony that the JCP would be the world first international program that is specialized on international e-commerce law. He expected the JCP would become a world center in this field of law in the rapid growing e-commerce environment. Prof. Chen stated that BNU was fully in support of the JCP and confident in its success.

After the Signing Ceremony, Dr. Castellani joined the Research Seminar organized by BNU Institute for Internet Policy & Law on “Legal Issues in Cross-Border E-Commerce” and gave a keynote speech on the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communication for International Contracts (UNECC). The Officials from the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) Department of E-Commerce and other legal experts joined the Seminar and had productive dialogue with Dr. Castellani. All agreed that the legal experience acquired from UNECC and MoC (pending) Administrative Measures on Transnational Rules of Third Party Platform in Internet Retailing formed the basis for further legal development, particularly for international trade via e-commerce.

联合国贸易法委员会亚太地区中心主任Castellani 先生访问北师大法学两院

2013 年9 月9 日下午，联合国贸易法委员会（UNCITRAL）亚太地区中心主任Castellani 先生访问北师大法学两院，就UNCITRAL 与北京师范大学法学两院联合举办《国际电子商务法理论与实务》国际联合证书项目进行洽谈。

师范大学刑事法律科学研究院院长赵秉志教授、北京师范大学国际合作交流处处长王秀梅教授、法学院互联网政策与法律研究中心主任薛虹教授、北京师范大学法学院副院长张红副教授参见了此次会见。联合国贸易法委员会（UNCITRAL）系国际贸易法领域联合国系统核心法律机构，是40 多年来专门从事全世界商法改革的拥有广泛成员的法律机构。贸易法委员会的业务是协调各种国际商业规则并使之现代化。UNCITRAL 亚太地区中心主任Luca G. Castellani 先生代表UNCITRAL 访问北京师范大学法学两院。他指出UNCITRAL 充分认识到与中国加强经济合作的重要性，此次来访的目的是与法学两院就联合举办国际电子商务法证书项目进行洽谈。

赵秉志院长代表北京师范大学法学两院向Castellani 先生的到来表示欢迎，并简单介绍了法学两院的情况。他认为国际联合证书项目本身具有建设性意义，同时对于法学两院加强与国际组织的合作交流也具有非常重要的意义。法学两院将全力支持证书项目的建设。

国际合作交流处处长王秀梅教授转达了学校对本次证书项目洽谈工作的重视，并表示国际合作交流处将对国际联合证书项目给予大力支持。法学院互联网政策与法律研究中心主任薛虹教授代表法学两院与Castellani 先生就国际联合证书项目的合作方式、合作内容等具体问题进行洽谈，双方就合作的关键问题达成共识。

Prof. Xue, Director of IIPL, along with the Director of BNU International Office and Associate Dean of Law School, paid the official visit to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Zurich University Law School, Graz University Law School and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law respectively over June 3-7, 2013. BNU visitors had very constructive and fruitful discussions with their counterparts in both the UN Agencies and the University on the potential collaborative academic projects. One of the immediate accomplishments is the upcoming conclusion of the BNU-UNCITRAL Certificate Program on Domestic and International E-Commerce Law. The photos below partially reveal the hard works in Europe.

Meeting at Zurich Law School

Meeting with Graz Law School team

. Xiumei Wang with Ms. Hang Gao, Director, WIPO

“知识产权与技术创新学术研讨会”成功举办

Research Conference on Intellectual Property & Technological Innovation

5月14日，由北京师范大学互联网政策与法律研究中心主办、北龙中网（KNET）、中域国际协办的“知识产权与技术创新学术研讨会”，在北京师范大学后主楼1824法学院学术报告厅成功举行。

来自最高人民法院、中华商标协会 、版权协会 、国家工商总局商标局、国家知识产权局、知识产权研究会、中国互联网络信息中心、国际经济贸易仲裁委员会、北龙中网、政务和公益机构域名注册管理中心、中域国际、中国版权杂志等机构30余位代表，以及来自美利坚大学华盛顿法学院的教授及来自华盛顿的版权技术专家代表参加了此次会议。法学院部分硕士和博士研究生也参加了会议并和与会专家学者进行了积极交流。

上午9点半会议正式开始，会议由北师大互联网政策与法律研究中心主任薛虹教授主持，会议主题为我国“域名系统的知识产权保护新发展”。首先，薛虹教授针对该问题发表了主题演讲，对我国域名系统现行的相关规定及存在问题进行了阐述，并提出了相关解决建议。随后，与会嘉宾对该议题进行了热烈的讨论和磋商，代表各界对该问题提出了看法和建议。与会的代表就网络时代和新通用顶级域名背景下商标权的保护措施和保护体系的构建达成了一致。

下午1点半，会议进行第二阶段。下午会议分为两个议题，第一阶段主要探讨了“开放模式的版权限制与例外”的问题。首先，美利坚大学华盛顿法学院教授发表了主题演演讲，介绍了版权限制和例外的历史发展及美国对该问题的现行法律规定。随后，与会嘉宾对此问题展开讨论。中国国家版权局着重强调了视障人版权权利的保护；版权协会中美司法制度在该问题上的区别进行了讨论，并对我国正在进行第三次修改的《著作权法》与嘉宾进行了意见交流；中国软件联盟代表则呼吁加大对中国软件用户利益的保护、法律制定要有利于产业的发展。第二个议题围绕“国际贸易协议中的知识产权问题”展开。Jonathan Band律师结合自己的工作背景就TPPA与知识产权发表了主题演讲，对国际贸易中互联网经济发展的必要环境因素以及相关版权平行进口等问题进行了阐述。在随后的讨论环节，中国软件联盟就电子商务中的税收问题与Jonathan Band先生进行了交流，版权协会则指出平行进口的合理依据需要进一步的进行探讨。

下午5点，会议圆满结束。此次会议，国内外实务界和学术界专家学者共聚一堂，共同对相关问题进行了深入而有意义的讨论，极大体现了各界对知识产权与技术创新问题的重视，通过研讨势必将促进我国域名系统、国际贸易中知识产权等相关问题研究的进一步发展。

Intellectual Property & Technological Innovation

Organizer: BNU Internet Policy & Law (IIPL)

                                                                                                           May 14, 9:00-17:00

LawSchoolAuditorium, Room 1824, NewMainBuilding, Beijing Normal University

 DAY ONE MAY 14

9:00-9:30 Registration

9:30-12:00 Session One: Intellectual Property Measures in the new gTLD Program

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Hong Xue, Director of BNU IIPL

9:30-10:20 Keynote: Prof. Dr. Hong Xue, Director of BNU IIPL, “Towards a Chinese Community Trademark Clearinghouse”

10:20-11:20 Panel Discussion

Panelists:

(1) State IP Agencies

Justice Luo Dongchuan, Supreme People’s Court

Dr. Zhang Gang, Chinese Trademark Association

Mr. Ma Xiaogang, Chinese Copyright Society

Mr. Yao Zhiwei, Trademark Office of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce

Mr. Liu Lei, State Intellectual Property Office and Chinese Intellectual Property Research Council

(2) Dispute Resolution Provider

Mr. Li Hu, China International Economy and Trade Arbitration Commission

(3) Domain Name Industry

CNNIC

KNET

CONAC

Zhongyu International

11:20-12:00 Q&A

13:30-13:35 Introduction

 13:35-15:30 Session Two: Open Model of Copyright Flexibilities

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Hong Xue, Director of BNU IIPL

13:35-14:05 Keynote: Prof. Peter Jaszi, Washington College of Law, American University (interpretation by Prof. Hong Xue)

14:05-15:05 Panel Discussion

Panelists:

Ms. Yuhua Deng, National Copyright Administration of China

Dr. Dongchuan Luo, Supreme People’s Court of China

Ms. Yan Lin, Beijing Copyright Administration

Mr. Xiaogang Ma, Partner, Haotian Law Firm

Mr. Yan Sun, Partner, Tianyuan Law Firm

BNU Library (invited)

National Library (invited)

15:05-15:30 Q &A

 15:30-15:45 Coffee Break

 15:45-17:10 Session Three: IP Negotiation in “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement”

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Hong Xue, Director of BNU IIPL

15:45-16:15 Keynote: Mr. Jonathan Band, Librarian and technology copyright expert from Washington D.C. (interpretation by Prof. Hong Xue)

16:15-16:55 Panel Discussion Topics

Panelists:

Ms. Yuhua Deng, National Copyright Administration of China

Mr. Jianbin Hao, Ministry of Commerce

Ms. Yan Lin, Beijing Copyright Administration

Mr. Xiaogang Ma, Partner, Haotian Law Firm

16:55-17:10 Q &A

17:10-17:20 Closing Remarks

Chinese Community Statement on Trademark Clearinghouse and IDN Variants

Chinese At-large community unaminously agreed at the meeting on April 11, 2013 to submit the following statement to ICANN.

We are very disappointed at the implementation model outlined by “Trademark Clearinghouse: Rights Protection Mechanism Requirements” (hereafter “Requirements’) published on April 6, 2013. Particularly, the model completely overlooks the critical issues of IDN variants with respect to trademark clearinghouse (TMCH) and as a result would seriously impact the public interest in the pertinent user communities.

According to the Requirements, matching domain name labels will be generated for each Trademark Record in accordance with the Trademark Clearinghouse’s domain name matching rules.

The matching rules at the TMCH obviously, however, fail to take into account the trademarks in IDN scripts involving variants, although the variant issues had been raised by the language community experts at the Implementation Assistant Group (IAG).

Variant matching is actually critical for certain language communities. Take Chinese for example, a trademark holder may have registered a word-mark in simplified characters but it is unlikely to register the same word-mark in traditional characters and absolutely unthinkable to register in a mixed-up character setting. In this case, there will only be one trademark record generated in the TMCH. Since the new gTLD registries are obliged to offer sunrise services and trademark claims for the trademarks recorded in the TMCH, only that simplified word-mark will be eligible for sunrise registration and trademark claim services and leaves all other “variants” open for cybersquatting. Ruling out the un-registered word-mark variants would make TMCH completely useless to Chinese trademarks.

What is even more striking is that the Requirements specifically prohibits any registry from implementing variant or bundling rulesand allocating domain names under such variant or bundling rules prior to the conclusion of the Sunrise Period. Such restriction actually excludes any solution for IDN trademarks involving variants to be accommodated in the sunrise period at the TLD level, even though a registry is willing fix the variants through its registration management and at its own costs.

Trademarks have very important function of safeguarding public interests by identifying the source of goods or services. The malfunctioned TMCH design would cause serious public confusion and market chaos. The consequence will be even more serious regarding the trademarks in the fields of banking, insurance and other high-secure businesses. Although at-large community never supports over-extensive trademark measures, ICANN should treat all the trademarks equally, irrespective of the characters of the trademarks, and protect the users in all language communities from confusion equally.

If ICANN  is even willing to protect 50 “derivations” that are DIFFERENT from a trademark per se, why does it refuse to entertain the SAME trademark in variants. This is illogical by all means. On the other hand, all 50 derivations, if applied to a Chinese-character trademark, will all involve variant issues definitely.

At-Large community has made the statement on the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) in September 2012, in which at-large community concerns that the design of TMCH model that uniformly applies to all the gTLD registries, irrespective of their difference, may not provide the tailored services that are really needed by the new gTLD registries. At-large community suggested that “more open and flexible model deserves further exploration.”

The Chinese Internet user community, dating back to October 2011, suggested that IDN-script trademarks involving variants should be taken into account in the TMCH services and ICANN consider adopting community-based solution to address this issue. Many other language communities shared the views of Chinese community.

Unfortunately, ICANN has been deaf to the user community’s feedback and inputs and moves steadily toward the centralized, inflexible and variants-unfriendly TMCH. At-large community, therefore, strongly suggests that ICANN support community-based TLD-bottom-up solution for TMCH implementation and address the IDN variant issue before TMCH provides the services to the new gTLD registries.