ICANN Seeks to Hire Registrant Advocate – While Seeking Volunteers for Second Round New gTLDs Discussion Group

Philip CorwinBlog, ICANN, Law & Policy

Two recent ICANN announcements caught our eye because of their relevance to domain investors. The first was ICANN’s placement of a notice that it was seeking to hire its first ever Registrant Services Director-Consumer Advocate. The Job Description states that the position “involves participation in a number of cross-organizational projects in areas such as registrant rights, contract interpretations and compliance, …

ICA Tells ICANN to Pull the Plug on IGO/INGO Overreach

Philip CorwinBlog

For the third time in six months, ICA has told ICANN that the legally questionable and largely unnecessary attempts of International Governmental Agencies (IGOs) and International Nongovernmental Agencies (INGOs) to secure extraordinary protections for their organizational acronyms at second level domains should be met with a firm and resounding “no”. (Letter available below and at http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-igo-ingo-crp-prelim-10mar14/msg00006.html )

Concern over IANA Transition Going Bipartisan

Philip CorwinBlog

Early on it looked like concern over the Obama Administration’s proposal to terminate the U.S. counterparty role on the IANA functions contract might be a one-sided partisan affair. That would be very unfortunate, as Internet freedom as well as its security and stability should raise bipartisan questions. But that is changing. Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, last week noted …

DC Trains Laser Focus on ICANN, IANA, and NTIA – ICA Counsel to Speak On U.S Role in Internet Governance

Philip CorwinBlog

  The calm is over, and the storm may be about to begin. Congress is back from recess and not one but two Congressional Committees are about to hone in on the implications of the NTIA’s March 14th announcement of its intention to surrender its IANA functions contract counterparty status with ICANN by September 2015.   Meantime, an exhausting ICANN …

U.S. Plans to Relinquish IANA Contract in 2015

Philip CorwinBlog

The NTIA has just announced that it plans to turn its IANA functions contract counterparty role over to “the global multistakeholder community” when the current contract expires at the end of September 2015.

ICA Counsel to Speak at Internet Governance Program in Singapore

Philip CorwinBlog

ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been asked to speak at “ICANN and Global Internet Governance: The Road to São Paulo, and Beyond”, a program being held on Friday, March 21st in Singapore just before the start of the first ICANN meeting of the year. The full day program is being sponsored by ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC). Corwin will be a …

GoDaddy Hit with another Trademark Infringement Suit – A Hint of Things to Come?

Philip CorwinBlog

Number one domain name registrar GoDaddy has been hit by another trademark infringement lawsuit. Earlier this month GoDaddy failed in its efforts to recuse U.S. District Court Judge Audrey Collins from presiding over a case brought against it by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[i] The litigation alleges that GoDaddy committed cybersquatting trademark infringement when it “parked” more …

Fake Political Websites Draw Attention in DC

Philip CorwinBlog

Controversy continues to build in Washington, DC regarding an online campaign against Democratic candidates for the House being conducted by the National Republican Campaign Committee. As just reported by National Journal, the NRCC recently adjusted the arguably misleading series of websites and “changed the donation page to make clearer to potential contributors that their money wasn’t going to the smiling …

German Court Blurs Lines of Registrar Responsibility

Philip CorwinBlog

A German court has reached the rather startling conclusion that a domain registrar can be held responsible for alleged copyright infringement at a website even though its only contact with it was to perform the original domain registration. As reported by PC Advisor on February 7th, “A domain name registrar can be held liable for the copyright infringements of a …

ICANN Retreats on Opposition to Standard Contracts with UDRP Providers

Philip CorwinBlog

While it took three months, ICANN recently responded to the Business Constituency’s fall 2013 letter raising questions about the UDRP Status Report issued the day after the conclusion of the July 2013 Durban ICANN meeting. In a key clarification, ICANN’s response concedes that the Report does not predetermine the outcome of UDRP reform efforts slated to begin in spring 2015 …