ICA Counsel Philip Corwin told ICANN’s Board of Directors that they needed to take responsibility, fully review, and “own” the recent decision by Global Domains Division (GDD) staff to try to insert Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) in legacy gTLD contracts up for renewal – and that any further alterations of the URS and other rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) created …
RPM Comments Report Makes URS Expansion Danger Clear
On May 29th ICANN staff issued its Report of Public Comments on the “Draft Report: Rights Protection Mechanisms Review”. Back in May ICA advised ICANN that, “ICA would vigorously oppose any attempt to amend the URS to provide a domain transfer option as such a rapid and circumscribed process could be readily abused to further the scourge of reverse domain …
ICANN Proposes URS for .Cat and .Pro in Steady March Toward .Net and .Com
Just ten days ago we advised the domain investment community that ICANN staff was seeking to act in an unacceptably unaccountable manner that appears to violate ICANN’s own Bylaws by improperly imposing Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and other new gTLD program Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPM) implementations on legacy gTLDs. This would have the de facto effect of converting these RPMs …
ICA Counsel Quoted in WSJ Op-Ed on ICANN
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin is quoted in a May 18th Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. The article, “Obama’s Bungled Internet Surrender’, was penned by L. Gordon Crovitz, whose weekly column addresses technology-related policy matters. As the title suggests, Mr. Crovitz is not a fan of the Administration’s plan to relinquish its counterparty role on the IANA functions contract. His Op-Ed states: …
ICA Counsel to Testify before Congress on IANA Transition and ICANN Accountability
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been invited to testify on ICA’s behalf before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. The Subcommittee is holding a hearing on Wednesday, May 13th on the subject of “Stakeholder Perspectives on ICANN: The .Sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and Accountability in the Internet’s Operation”. The hearing …
Senate Judiciary Leaders Ask New IP Czar to Facilitate ICANN-Focused Conversations
Daniel Marti was nominated to become the new White House “IP Czar” in August 2014 to replace Victoria Espinel. His predecessor, in yet another illustration of Washington’s “revolving door” shuffling key individuals between the government and private sector, departed the post a year earlier to become head of BSA/The Software Alliance, the leading trade group for the software industry. …
$59 Million and Counting: ICANN Board Downgrades Community Say on Use of Last Resort Auction Proceeds
ICANN’s new gTLD program provides for last resort auctions to settle contention sets where the competing applicants are unable to reach agreement by negotiation or private auction, with the proceeds going to a segregated ICANN account. With the recent $25 million bid of Google to secure control of the .App registry the total proceeds of those ICANN auctions has swelled …
.US to Hold Inaugural Town Hall on April 22
Last fall I was appointed to the first Stakeholder Council ever established for .US, the country code top level domain (ccTLD) of the United States. Now I am happy to announce that .US will hold its inaugural Town Hall meeting on April 22nd at 1 pm Eastern time (17:00 UTC). As described by the Stakeholder Council’s Secretariat, the Town Hall …
Victory! Domains Stripped Out of EU “Trademark Package”
Back in January ICA joined with four other trade association in cosigning a letter communicating our joint concerns regarding a “trademark package” being considered by the Council of the European Union. Adoption of the language under consideration could have led to adverse judicial actions being brought against domain registrants of all types by aggressive trademark owners. In particular, the signatories …
ICANN CEO Responds to ICA Concerns Regarding Davos “Cybersquatting” Remarks
Early last month ICA President Jeremiah Johnston wrote to ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade to express concerns regarding remarks that he had made during an interview at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. In the course of those remarks the CEO was perceived to characterize domain portfolio owners of “hogging names”, as well as equate domain investors with “cybersquatters”. …