ICA Blog

On Sunday, October 23rd ICANN senior staffer Kurt Pritz made a lengthy presentation on “New gTLD Program Activities” to the GNSO Council meeting in Dakar. Narrating a slide presentation, and answering questions, Pritz addressed many of the complex implementation details of the program, which kicks off in mid-January (slide presentation available at http://dakar42.icann.org/meetings/dakar2011/presentation-new-gtld-program-activities-23oct11-en.pdf).   The presentation brought various aspects of …

ICANN’s GNSO Council, which sets policy for all gTLDs, engaged in a spirited one hour discussion of UDRP reform during its first day of meetings at the 42nd ICANN gathering in Dakar, Senegal. Resisting ICANN staff recommendations that any initiation of a formal policy review of the UDRP and consideration of appropriate  reforms be delayed until at least 18 months …

In a September 21st letter sent by Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) disclosed that it is “actively exploring how to best meet this requirement” for “a clear and enforced ethics and conflict of interest policy” in the next version of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority …

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt found himself in the crosshairs of a high-profile hearing held at the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee on September 21st. The inquiry, titled “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?, focused primarily on whether Google’s search engine results tended to favor its growing portfolio of Internet-based businesses over those of competitors, using its search …

In an afternoon keynote address presented to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) USA meeting (http://www.igf-usa.us/) held July 18th at Georgetown University Law School in Washington, DC, Larry Strickling, the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the Department of Commerce, indicated a much more favorable view of ICANN in the wake of its adoption …

This Spring ICANN staff released a Preliminary Issue Report on the Current State of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy, and followed up with a webinar featuring presentations by experts involved with all aspects of UDRP administration and representation. While the Report was of high quality, ICA was disappointed that the staff recommended that the GNSO refrain from authorizing further steps …

On Wednesday, June 22nd a session was held at the Singapore ICANN meeting regarding “The Current State of the UDRP”, including the recently issued Preliminary Issues Report on the UDRP which is open for public comment until July 15th. That Report generally recommends that a Policy Development Process (PDP) should not be initiated on the UDRP — but that if …

In a historic June 20th vote of thirteen yays to two nays, with two abstentions, ICANN’s Board of Directors voted in Singapore to approve the opening of the domain name system (DNS) to unlimited applications for new generic top level domains (gTLDs). The application period for the initial round will open on January 12, 2012 and close three months later …

After a daylong air journey from Washington to Singapore we spent the weekend ensconced in the Raffles Convention Center observing the workings of ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) policymaking body and trading news and rumors in the air conditioned hallways that provide shelter from the sweltering heat outside. Upon arrival we learned of two new communications that will likely …

When ICANN’s Board meets in Singapore in two weeks to consider approving the launch of new gTLDs it will mark the third anniversary of its 2008 vote in Paris to initiate the new gTLD project. The seemingly interminable process that has ensued over the past 36 months has brought many disturbing new ideas to fruition – including new ‘rights protections’ …