Is it really less than a week ago that Melbourne IT (MIT) hosted a Washington, DC forum on “Trademarks and New gTLDs”? The calendar says that it was, but intervening events make the discussion that took place feel outdated already — given that the one item on which there was clear consensus among almost all event participants (ICANN moving forward …
URS Implementation Finally to Commence Under GNSO Direction
For more than a year ICA has been asking ICANN when it will commence with the task of implementing the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) policy for the new gTLD program as it currently stands in the Applicant Guidebook (AG). The URS is a required rights protection mechanism (RPM) that must be in place before any new gTLDs can open, and …
Brand Owners Want to Rev Up RPMs
On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 5th ICA attended a meeting on rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) for new gTLDs held at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington. About 40 persons attended in person, with another half dozen connected by phone, and almost all of them were from law firms, trade associations, corporations, and consultancies representing major brand interests. ICA …
DOJ/ICE Domain Seizures Questioned by U.S. House Members
On August 30th three members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano raising questions about the legality and methodology of the Operations In Our Sites domain seizure program jointly launched by those Cabinet Departments in November 2010. The letter (available at http://lofgren.house.gov/images/Letter_to_AG_Holder_083012.pdf ) was signed by …
Melbourne IT Plans to Bring HARM to DC
Melbourne IT’s involvement with ICANN dates back to 1999, when ICANN awarded it one of the first five registrar licenses to compete with the then-monopoly of Network Solutions Inc. in registering domain names under .com, .net and .org. It remains in the top tier of Internet registrars today, with 4.5 million domains under management. It is also involved with several …
ICANN Posts Tentative Roadmap for the Processing of New gTLD Applications
ICANN has posted a “tentative roadmap” for the future direction of the new gTLD program. It is available at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-17aug12-en . This August 17th notice explains that, now that pre-evaluation “batching” has been ruled out, the technical limit of adding a maximum of 1,000 domains per year will require the selection of a pre-delegation “metering” process. The notice provides six …
The ICANN Policy and Decision Making Process is Seriously Flawed
ICANN’s policy and decision making process is supposedly based upon a bottom up, community consensus model. While we are all for careful deliberation before major policies are adopted and implementing actions are taken, we cannot support endless process for its own sake – especially when no concrete action ever results. ICA has just filed a comment letter regarding the July …
Judiciary Committee Leaders Ask ICANN for Further Details on New gTLD Program
The Chairmen and ranking minority members of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees have sent a letter to ICANN requesting “further details about the steps ICANN is taking to fulfill its commitment to ensure that the New gTLD process will provide “a secure, stable marketplace” with input from “the community as a whole.” The August 7th letter and an …
New gTLDs to be Delayed until Third Quarter of 2013 as ICANN Abandons Evaluation Batching and Seeks Input on Delegation Metering – Provides Additional Time for Open and Transparent URS Implementation
On July 29th ICANN announced that it is inclined to process all of the 1,930 new gTLD applications in a single batch, and that the results of the initial evaluations of all applications will probably be released around June to July of 2013, stating: The current plan indicates that initial evaluation of all applications, processed in a “single batch”, can …
GAC Internal Process for Briefings by New gTLD Applicants and Other Interested Stakeholders Raises Multiple Process and Timing Questions
ICANN has its own internal politics, as we’d expect for any organization having important duties and serving, and subject to input from, multiple constituencies. Those internal politics and “Capital P” politics intersect at its Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC’s advisory role assumed more prominence under the Affirmation of Commitments (AOC) entered into upon U.S. relinquishment of direct ICANN oversight, …