ICA Blog

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 …

ICANN has put the DNS-centric community on notice for quite some time that the upper limit of its ability to conduct simultaneous evaluations of new gTLD applications would be around 500, and if a greater number of applications was received in the opening round it would need to resort to a batching system that used some means of prioritizing applications …

On March 27th ICANN published a proposed revision of the .Com registry agreement to govern VeriSign’s continued management of the most populous gTLD registry from December 1, 2012 through November 30, 2018. The announcement filled us with a sense of déjà vu tinged with nostalgia, as the ICA was established in reaction to the controversy that ensued when the 2006 …

Last month, in response to continuing concerns and some outright confusion about whether brand owners would be compelled to pony up $185k application fees for defensive gTLD registrations, ICANN opened up a comment period for the purpose of clarifying the matter. While the invitation to comment made clear that input was only being solicited in regard to top level registrations, …

During the Public Forum held on Thursday, March 15th by ICANN’s Board of Directors at its just-concluded meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica, ICA Counsel Philip Corwin addressed the Board during the portion of the Forum devoted to an exchange of views on “Implementation issues around new gTLD rollout”. Corwin raised questions regarding the implementation status of Uniform Rapid Suspension …