Dear Mike,
1. According to the Brazilian rules and regulations for Internet, only entities based on Brazil are allowed to register domains with the Brazilian ccTLD (.br). Foreign entities must have a local branch in Brazil to make such registration.
2. A temporary registration is granted to foreign companies that intend to open a branch in Brazilian territory within the period of 12 months beginning with the time when the application is filed at the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br - Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil). In this case, the foreign company must basically:
a) have an attorney-in-fact in Brazil (with a written power of attorney officially translated to Portuguese), which is responsible for the domain registration;
b) present a statement (officially translated to Portuguese) by which the company informs its own corporate name, full address, telephone number, corporate purpose, operating activities, and the name and post title of the agent which is able to act for the company;
c) present a statement (officially translated to Portuguese) by which the company commits itself to settle a branch in Brazil within 12 months; and
d) fulfill some other minor conditions and formalities.
3. Wikimedia Brasil is not formally and legally established as a Wikimedia Chapter. Wikimedia Brasil has the approval of the Board of Trustees (resolution dated October 2008), but is not legally structured and registered with our local authorities yet. We believe that we still do not have critical mass to start and maintain a full and registered entity in Brazil. We are currently working on all Wikimedia projects and operating in accordance with all Wikimedia principles and rules (in the same way as a local chapter), but we believe it would be unwise to register Wikimedia Brasil as a legal person at this moment.
4. In a pragmatic approach, we believe that the Wikimedia Foundation should concentrate efforts on the primary problem, which is the trademark unauthorized registration attempts. The domain registration is a secondary problem whose solution may depend on the solution given to the trademark problem. This suggestion is based on 4 main reasons.
4.1. Apparently, the domain (wikipedia.com.br) is reserved by the CGI.br, while the trademark registration processes are in course of analysis. Therefore, these trademark applications are subject to approval at any moment.
4.2. The companies that filed the trademark applications at the Industrial Property National Institute (INPI - Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial) probably intend to use the registration assent as evidence and justification to disengage the domain that is currently reserved by the CGI.br.
4.3. The Wikimedia Foundation (or the local chapter with the respective trademark license agreement) will be able to easily disengage the domain by presenting to the CGI.br the trademark officially registered by the Wikimedia Foundation itself at the INPI.
4.4. If the Wikimedia Foundation clearly consolidates position on its own trademarks in Brazil (by officially registering them at the INPI, in addition to all other international registrations), the CGI.br will prevent anyone other than Wikimedia from registering any domain that contains trademark owned by the Wikimedia Foundation.
5. In any way, the Wikimedia Foundation may consider the possibility of registering the domain in a temporary condition (item 2 above), while dealing with the trademark issues and waiting for the registration of the Brazilian Chapter as legal person. After the registration of the Wikimedia Brasil with our local authorities, the Brazilian Chapter may succeed the Wikimedia Foundation as legal holder of the domains in Brazil. This succession must occur within the 12-month period granted to temporary registration.
6. We apologize for presenting more problems than solutions, but we believe that you should have a clear idea of the whole situation. As said before, we are at Alisa disposal to assist her with any issue related to the Wikimedia projects in Brazil. And I am beginning to translate to English some regulations for registration of domain names in Brazil, in case you, Alisa and Doug need them to decide how to proceed.
Best regards,
Joaquim