ICA Blog

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 …

  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 …

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 …

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 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 …

  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 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 …

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 …

  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 …

  In our recent post on the proposed renewal draft of the .Com registry contract we noted that, in addition to appropriately rejecting IP sector urgings that the untested URS be foisted on 100-million-plus .Com domains through contractual fiat, and to continuing the price increase cap provisions of the current contract, the document contained other significant provisions including “Deferral of …