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 …
The Modern Workspace
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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”. …
Estimating Trademark Claims Notice Suppression of Non-Infringing New gTLD Registrations
On February 2nd ICANN staff announced the release of a Draft Report: Rights Protection Mechanisms Review that is open for public comment until May 1st. This Draft Report is preliminary to an Issues Report requested by the GNSO Council that is due to be delivered by September 30th, and that may set the stage for a Policy Development Process (PDP) …
We “Do It Right” – ICA on the Record at ICANN 52 Singapore
On February 4th I departed my home in Alexandria, Virginia for the ICANN 52 meeting in Singapore. I arrived at my hotel’s reception desk 28 hours and +13 time zones later. While my 777 was traversing the Arctic Circle, ICA dispatched a letter to ICANN CEO responding to remarks he made during the annual gathering of the top tenth of …
U.S. Senate Declares “Internet Governance Awareness Week” Coinciding with ICANN 52 Singapore
On February 5th, while many (including the author) were on route to ICANN 52 in Singapore, the U.S. Senate passed S.Res. 71, a non-binding, “Sense of the Senate” Resolution declaring February 8th-14th as “Internet Governance Awareness Week”. Those dates overlap the now ongoing ICANN meeting in Singapore, and the congruence is intentional. The text of the Resolution (below) is fairly …
ICA Responds to ICANN CEO’s Davos Remarks on “Hogging Names” and “Cybersquatting”
During the recent World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ICANN CEO engaged in an interview in which he touted the purported benefits of the new gTLD program. Unfortunately, in the course of those remarks he appeared to accuse domain portfolio owners of “hogging names” as well as equate them with “cybersquatters”. Many ICA members felt that these remarks were …
Senate Commerce Committee Plans ICANN Oversight Hearing
Elections do have consequences. Last year outgoing Senate Commerce Committee Chairman (D-WV) Jay Rockefeller resisted member requests to engage in oversight on the Obama Administration’s March 2014 announcement that it intended to end the U.S. counterparty role on the IANA functions contract and turn the responsibility over to the global multistakeholder community. But incoming Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) will …