A fundamental change in Canada, effective June 10, will restrict the accessibility of publicly available information about registrants of .ca domain names.

After several years of consultation and debate, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), administrator of the .ca domain, will enforce a new policy to protect the privacy of individual registrants of .ca domain names in its WHOIS database. With limited exceptions, this policy will not extend to corporate registrants.

WHOIS databases provide detailed personal information of the registrant and technical contacts for each domain name. These databases have long been valuable resources for those checking on the authenticity of website owners or seeking to contact owners for commercial or technical purposes; for trademark holders to enforce their rights against potential infringement by "cybersquatters"; and for police investigating potential criminal activity. Many have argued that being required to disclose personal information in a publicly available database provides a ripe source of personal information that could be used for identity theft and spam, and could discourage free expression of political ideas and public opinion on the Internet.

Since the inception of CIRA in 1998, the .ca WHOIS allowed the public to view the name, address, phone and fax numbers and email address of the owner and the technical contact of each .ca domain name.

Under the new CIRA policy, a WHOIS search will no longer produce an individual registrant's personal information unless the registrant waives this protection. On the other hand, corporate registrants' information will remain publicly available unless the registrant can show that special circumstances justify protection.

If someone wishes to contact a .ca domain name holder whose information is protected, CIRA will provide a method (not yet publicized) to pass on an electronic message to the registrant, indicating that a party is interested in corresponding with the domain name holder.

This new policy will likely have a severe impact on the ability of trademark owners to successfully challenge individuals who have in bad faith registered domain names containing trademarks belonging to trademark owners. For example, under the CIRA Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, one indicator of bad faith is a person (alone or in concert with others) who has engaged in a pattern of registering domain names to prevent trademark owners from registering their trademarks as domain names. The new policy provides a very limited way to obtain a list of domain names with the exact name of the owner of a specific domain. Without the ability to fully analyze the WHOIS database, trademark owners will find it more difficult to investigate such patterns.

As a result of this change in policy, trademark owners and others interested in carving out a niche on the Internet and protecting their names and brands may wish to be even more proactive in registering their primary marks and brands, and similar variants, as domains as early as possible. The benefits of the nominal registration expense will likely far outweigh the time and expense in pursuing cybersquatters or potential infringers.

Your legal advisers can assist in formulating the most effective strategy in responding to this new policy.

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