“Patagonia, Inc. has fully complied with all new gTLD application requirements set forth by ICANN in the Applicant Guidebook. “Patagonia” is not a “geographic name” as defined by ICANN and, accordingly, our application for the .patagonia gTLD does not need documentation of governmental support or non-objection.

As the Applicant Guidebook explains in detail, ICANN does not consider all gTLD strings that could have some geographic connotation to be “geographic names” that require documentation of governmental support or non-objection. Specifically, Section 2.2.1.4.2 of the Applicant Guidebook identifies specific categories of applied-for gTLD strings that “are considered geographic names and must be accompanied by documentation of support or non-objection from the relevant governments or public authorities.” These categories are: (1) capital city names; (2) city names where applicants declare that they intend to use the gTLD for purposes associated with the city name; (3) sub-national place names listed in the ISO 3166-2 standard; (4) regional names appearing on the list of UNESCO regions; and (5) regional names on the UN’s “Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings” list.

“Patagonia” does not fall within any of these categories and does not appear on any of these lists. Accordingly, “Patagonia” is not a “geographic name” as the Applicant Guidebook defines that term for purposes of ICANN’s Geographic Names Review and, accordingly, the application for the .patagonia string is complete and compliant with ICANN’s requirements in its present form and does not require documentation of governmental support or non-objection.

In addition, Patagonia, Inc. owns 12 Argentina trademark registrations for marks that contain or consist of its PATAGONIA mark, the earliest of which issued almost 20 years ago. Similarly, Patagonia, Inc. owns 8 Chile trademark registrations for marks that contain or consist of its PATAGONIA mark, the earliest of which issued over 28 years ago. Patagonia, Inc.’s ownership of these trademark registrations in Argentina and Chile demonstrates that the laws of Argentina and Chile not only do not prohibit commercial use of “Patagonia” by entities that are not from Argentina or Chile, respectively, but that the laws of both countries clearly protect such use.”

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