The final Report of the Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) created by ICANN to propose trademark “solutions” for new gTLDs was due on Sunday, May 24th. We checked the IRT home page over the last three days but could find not find it, but did hear through the grapevine that it had been delayed.
Today, ICANN finally posted an official notice at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-27may09-en.htm stating that the publication date has been extended until Friday, May 29th. We eagerly await the Report and will provide an analysis as soon as we digest it – focusing particularly on whether the ICA comments delivered at the final IRT meeting in San Francisco had any discernible impact upon its final recommendations.
Meanwhile, trademark attorney Kathryn Kleiman, a final drafter of the UDRP, has weighed in with a May 24th comment to the IRT that is sharply critical of its interim report. That comment, available at http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/msg00068.html, states:
Under law today, trademark owners have a legal obligation to protect their trademarks (and service marks). That trademark owners would seek to create a private policing service is not unusual. That they would seek to impose their duties of policing on ICANN is a surprise.
In brief,
The IRT Proposals are outside the scope of trademark law;
The IRT Proposals are outside the scope of ICANN; and
The IRT Proposals do not meet the guidelines and consideration
criteria established by IRT itself.
Ms. Kleiman’s full comments are well worth reading. And the fact that they reinforce many of the comments presented to the IRT by the ICA is gratifying.
Philip S. Corwin
Partner
Butera & Andrews
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-6875 (office)
202-347-6876 (fax)
202-255-6172 (cell)
"Luck is the residue of design." — Branch Rickey