It sounds as if this will open the door to my being able to
advertise myself as the IETF Secretariat. Or even the ITU's being
able to. Yes?
You could certainly use "Secretariat" but you cannot use "IETF
Secretariat" without violating the "IETF" trademark.
Secretariat is a generic world, while IETF is made up. Trademark law
generally allows you to protect a made up word, or a phrase containing
made up words or a combination of generic and made up.
I agree that so long as we maintain a trademark on "IETF" there is
little value in separate registration of phrases, particularly
considering how expensive it is. The US renewal fee is only $450 but
that still seems like a waste in this case.
By the way, when I go to the WIPO Madrid Protocol web site, it says
that the renewal fee for the EU is CHF2186, about $2500. Where'd the
$5000 come from? And did we ever follow up on Japan's rejection of
our application?
R's,
John