As part of its avowed commitment to transparency – a key element in the Affirmation of Commitments signed at the conclusion of direct U.S. oversight — ICANN maintains a document disclosure procedure similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. This Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP) “is intended to ensure that information contained in documents concerning ICANN’s operational activities, and …
ICA Urges That $175,000 URS Summits “Slush Fund” Be Struck from ICANN’s FY 2013 Budget
Domain registrant fees are the source of the vast majority of ICANN operating funds, so in a sense registrants are the taxpayers of the ICANN system. To the extent that ICA members own or manage a significant percentage of existing domains we want to make sure that our “tax dollars” are spent wisely, that registrants’ viewpoints are reflected in ICANN …
SOPA, .Com, and URS – Beware “Bait and Switch” Domain Censorship
It was only four months ago that the SOPA legislation (and its U.S. Senate companion, PIPA) crashed and burned in rather spectacular, unanticipated, and embarrassing fashion following a White House policy statement that distanced the Obama Administration from those proposals to give copyright and trademark owners new means to shutter domains claimed to be infringing, as well as after …
2011 UDRP Filings Up at WIPO, Down at NAF – And Still Infinitesimal
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently issued a detailed press release regarding Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) cases for which it provided arbitration services in 2011 (http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2012/article_0002.html ) and, once again, the number of WIPO filings was up. According to WIPO: “In 2011, trademark holders filed a record 2,764 cybersquatting cases covering 4,781 domain names with the WIPO Arbitration …
ICANN Staff: URS Summits Budget Item is a Placeholder for “Community Discussion” – But Where Was the Community Discussion of Whether URS Should be Reconfigured?
Last week we noted that the draft ICANN FY 2013 Budget contained $175,000 in funding for two “Summits” to be devoted to reconfiguring the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) rights protection mechanism for new gTLDs in order to achieve a “lower cost model” (http://internetcommerce.org/URS-Summits). Further inquiries made to members of the ICANN community — including a member of the Board, several …
ICANN Budgets for Two URS Reconfiguration “Summits” to Satisfy Trademark Interest Goal of a “Lower Cost Model”
ICANN has released its Draft FY13 Operating Plan and Budget (http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/op-budget-fy13-01may12-en.htm) and while we haven’t reviewed it in its entirely yet we did notice that it contains two references to the implementation of the new Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) rights protection mechanism meant to supplement the UDRP at new gTLDs. The first, at page 10, states: Rights Protection Mechanisms. Implementation …
ICA Counsel Interviewed on Domain Masters Radio
Internet Commerce Association (ICA) Counsel Philip Corwin is featured in a 30-minute 1-on-1 interview with Domain Masters radio host Victor Pitts in a wide-ranging discussion of legal and policy issues of bottom line importance to all domain investors. The show will first air on WebmasterRadio.fm at 5pm ET on Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Shortly after that initial webcast, the …
ICANN Board Meetings Should be Webcast Live
ICANN has just announced that, starting with the June meeting in Prague, the ICANN Board will no longer meet and cast votes on the final day of its three annual public meetings (http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-30apr12-en.htm). We think this is an ill-advised step backwards from ICANN’s commitment to transparency and the accountability that accompanies it. We also believe that ICANN should have told …
IP Interests Want to SOPA-Size .Com
The best thing about the proposed .Com renewal agreement is what’s not in it – the untested Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) mechanism, which trademark interests initially portrayed as a narrow supplement to the UDRP yet continue to try to convert into a cut-rate substitute for that increasingly unreliable arbitration process. URS is required to be in place when the first …
Why Is ICANN Reopening the Issue of Second Level Defensive Registrations at New gTLDs?
One of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with ICANN is that, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with its policy decisions, it often seems incapable of sticking to them for very long. Certainly there’s a virtue to being open to reexamining certain matters. But when an issue has been debated ad nauseam there comes a point where …