Chan Luu Case Settles/Registrants Can Still Seek Return of Domains

Philip CorwinUncategorized

While we are not privy to the details, we have received word that there has been a settlement in the litigation brought by Chan Luu against Grant Shellhammer and Online Growth. As we first reported in early October, more than 5,000 domain names were said to have been transferred by VeriSign to Uniregistrar after it was served with a sealed …

ICA Counsel Appointed to Inaugural .US Stakeholder Council

Philip CorwinUncategorized

ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been appointed to the first Stakeholder Council ever established for .US, the country code top level domain (ccTLD) of the United States. The Charter of this new Council sets its Scope of Work as follows: The Council will address matters related to the operation of the usTLD in the interest of the usTLD user community. …

ICA ADOPTS RESOLUTION CHANGING MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE, ADDING NEW BOARD MEMBER FOR JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP CLASSES AND ESTABLISHING VOTING PROCEDURES

adminICA

The attached resolution was unanimously adopted by the ICA board on October 3rd.  The following email to ICA members accompanied the announcement of the resolution. Dear ICA Members, The board has adopted the attached resolution to implement the addition of a new board position and the changes to the membership levels that we announced previously. In summary, the resolution- 1.  Creates a new board …

Undue Process: Nearly Five Thousand Domains Transferred Under Sealed Court Order

Philip CorwinUncategorized

Noted domain investor, industry advisor, blogger, and ICA member Mike Berkens has alerted us to a very disturbing occurrence. Unfortunately for Mike, he has been directly impacted by it. According to an October 2nd blog post at The Domains, “As Many As 5K .Com’s Taken Away By Sealed Court Order By Verisign Including Some Of Mine”— Overnight I received a …

ICA Exploring Domain Theft Project to Counter a Growing Abuse

Philip CorwinCongress, ICANN, Law & Policy, UDRP

There has been a lot of domain industry press attention lately to domain thefts. We don’t know for sure if this problem is becoming more acute or is just being reported on more often. But, regardless of the level of activity, we know that there are inadequate recovery and punitive remedies available at present for domain owners who experience theft …

ICANN’s Comment Period on Accountability Process Seeks Scope Limitations

Philip CorwinAccountability, ICANN, Law & Policy, NTIA

Bowing to unprecedented community pressure in the form of a unanimous letter questioning its staff-developed Accountability Process, as well as a reconsideration request filed with the Board, on September 5th ICANN issued a notice titled “Public Comment Invited: Enhancing ICANN Accountability Process”. The notice opens a 21-day public comment period on that staff proposal. However, ICANN staff apparently cannot resist …

ICA Counsel To Co-Chair IGO/INGO Working Group

Philip CorwinUncategorized

On September 4th ICANN’s GNSO Council confirmed the appointment of ICA Counsel Philip Corwin as Co-Chairman of the IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms Working Group. This WG will have to consider a broad array of issues that are relevant not only to its own work but to the broader upcoming review of the rights protection measures (RPMs) created …

ICA Tells ICANN: Withdraw Bylaws Proposal to Give Governments More Power

Philip CorwinUncategorized

On September 3rd the ICA filed a comment letter with ICANN opposing a Bylaws amendment proposal to raise the threshold for Board rejection of Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) “advice” from a simple majority to a two-thirds vote. The GAC presently submits advice to ICANN based on “consensus”, which is general agreement without objection. But, in the wake of the U.S. …