Internet Commerce Association - ICA

Slow down or speed up? It depends on who you ask. ICANN’s ongoing meeting in Seoul has heard very different opinions on whether new gTLDs are ready for prime time. But the real world  bottom line seems to be that the application window will not be opening until fall 2010 at the earliest, and that no new gTLDs will be up and running until 2011.

Has ICANN's Board assigned its policy-making GNSO Council an impossible task in directing it to attempt to reach consensus on alternatives to the staff “assimilation” of the IRT recommendations regarding the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and Trademark Clearinghouse proposals?  (See http://www.internetcommerce.org/ICANN_Requests_GNSO_Feedback for background on that request.) That question was grappled with at length during an all-day meeting of the Council held in Seoul on Saturday, October 24th.

Greetings from Seoul, an exciting and dynamic city that is a fascinating mix of the 21st century and traditional culture.

Pre-meetings of ICANN’s policymaking GNSO commence tomorrow morning, where scores of jet-lagged “community members” will attempt to stay alert and engage in coherent and productive discussions.

We recently noted (see http://www.internetcommerce.org/ICANN_Releases_DAGv3)  that the third version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) for new gTLDs did not contain the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) policy and several other trademark protection mechanisms proposed by the Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) but instead left the final decision on these matters to ICANN’s Board, to be made after consultation with the Generic Names Supporting organization (GNSO), its internal policy-making body.

As anticipated, ICANN has just released the third version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) for new generic top level domains (gTLDs). The DAG has been revised in more than 50 areas, so we will be combing through it to fully understand its potential impact on the domain investment community. (DAGv3 available at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-3-en.htm.)

ICANN has taken considerable heat from many parties that it has yet to produce a convincing economic study detailing the market demand and viability of new generic top level domains (gTLDs). But a recently issued, ICANN-funded technical study makes a strong case for delaying the introduction of new gTLDs and other root zone changes until domain name system  (DNS) security in the form of DNSSEC (the “signed root”) has been implemented to help assure the long-term safety and security of the DNS.

The JPA is dead. Long live the AOC. The Joint Project Agreement (JPA)

Domain investors can breathe at least a temporary sigh of relief following Wednesday’s revelation that the much feared and reviled Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) policy will not be included in the third version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) for new gTLDs to be released by ICANN in the first week of October. The disclosure came in the course of testimony delivered by ICANN COO Doug Brent at a hearing on “The Expansion of Top level Domains and Its Effect on Competition” held September 23rd by the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy.

A diverse group has just sent a letter (http://www.icann.org/correspondence/van-couvering-to-beckstrom-21sep09-en.pdf) to ICANN’s top executives and Board in which they “urge you to direct ICANN staff to implement ICANN’s plan to introduce new top-level domains without further delay”.

On September 15th two senior Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith and Howard Coble, dispatched a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom. The letter (text here) starts with a hearty congratulation, but by the second paragraph it is raising concerns over the proposed rollout of new gTLDs and the potential expiration of its Joint Project Agreement with the U.S. on September 30th.