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 will focus on three key topics:
- Me, you & .US: the .US brand and how it can support and engage your community or business;
- Multi-stakeholderism at the local level: public participation in .US policymaking as a window for participating in Internet governance; and
- Beyond kids.us: the next generation of youth engagement and participation in .US.
As noted, .US is the ccTLD of the USA. While VeriSign reports that six of the top ten TLDs globally are ccTLDs, .US is not among them, with total registrations currently totaling about 1.8 million. A major goal of the Town Hall is to engage with current and prospective .US registrants to discuss how it can be better promoted, and how some policies might be responsibly modified to attract a broader customer base.
.US is managed by Neustar under a contract with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and operates under a broad array of policies. A key one is its Nexus Requirements Policy which currently limits domain registrations to US citizens, permanent residents, and those primarily residing in the US; US entities and organizations; and foreign entities and organizations with a bona fide US presence. Possibly in connection with those requirements, the NTIA has barred privacy-protective proxy registrations at .US since 2005.
.US also has an Acceptable Use Policy adopted in May 2014 that generally bars illegal uses and intellectual property infringement. The registry has also adopted a Specification on Registrant’s Rights and Responsibilities that advises registrants of their rights vis-à-vis their registrars, as well as their own basic responsibilities.
Potential registrants should also be aware that in June 2014 .US adopted a version of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), dubbed usRS, which varies from the URS adopted by ICANN for new gTLDs in one very important aspect — it requires the complainant to demonstrate that “the domain name(s) were registered or are being used in bad faith”, rather than the conjunctive “and”.
While we stand firmly against intentional trademark infringement at any domain, this low bar to domain suspension does create concerns about adequate due process for registrants. That’s especially so because the usRS arbitration process is administered solely by the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) which has a reputation among domainers for spotty quality control.
One recently decided NAF case concerning the domain t-25.us illustrates the concern. While the suspension decision may have been correct, there is absolutely no way to tell from reading it. Granted that this was a default case where the registrant provided no response, yet the examiner merely recites the elements required to obtain a suspension and then declares they have been met, without even noting what goods or services t-25 was trademarked for or how the domain was being used (or if it resolved at all). Section 8.3 of the usRS requires “that the Complainant must present adequate evidence to substantiate its trademark rights in the domain name (e.g., evidence of a trademark registration and evidence that the domain name was registered or is being used in bad faith in violation of the usRS)”; surely NAF compensates its examiners sufficiently to take the extra few minutes required to share what that evidence was in the decision text. We don’t think this decision represents acceptable arbitration practice and grade it an Incomplete at best. (We do note that other parts of the usRS are registrant protective. For example, under Section 11 a complainant who files two abusive cases or one featuring deliberate material falsehood is barred from the process for a year; and two instances of deliberate material falsehood results in a lifetime ban.)
We encourage domain investors who currently hold .US domains or who have an interest in them to participate in the Town Hall and to be ready to ask questions and engage in constructive dialogue. I will be engaging in my role as a Stakeholder Council member.