During its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, May 12th, ICANN’s GNSO Council confirmed the appointment of ICA Counsel Philip S. Corwin to be a Co-Chair of the Review of all Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in all gTLDs PDP Working Group (WG). Corwin represents ICA on ICANN’s Business Constituency (BC) and is one of the BC’s... Read more

In an unexpected move, the two top U.S. officials charged with the Obama Administration’s Internet policy have issued a joint statement severely criticizing draft Chinese domain policies. On May 16th, the State Department’s  Ambassador Daniel A. Sepulveda and NTIA’s Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence E. Strickling issue...

On March 9th, 2016, during its final open meeting at ICANN 55 in Marrakech, Morocco, the GNSO Council approved a motion that I proposed to adopt the Charter of the Policy Development Process (PDP) to Review all Rights Protections Mechanisms in all Generic Top-Level Domains. I serve on the Council as one of the two representatives... Read more

On February 11th VeriSign held its Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2015 Earnings Call with stock analysts. In the course of the call VeriSign revealed that it had reached tentative agreement with ICANN to extend the .Com Registry Agreement (RA) by ten years, with the extension’s start coinciding with the effective date of the IANA contract... Read mor...

The domain investment community represented by the Internet Commerce Association extends a warm welcome to incoming ICANN President and CEO Göran Marby. Mr. Marby’s selection was announced by ICANN on February 8th. He presently serves as Director-General of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority and has more than 20 years of experience in the Inter...

Domain registrants have long voiced their desire for a comprehensive review and subsequent reforms of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). That goal is now in sight, and is set to proceed in the manner recommended to ICANN by ICA. On January 11, 2016 ICANN policy staff submitted to the GNSO Council the “Final Issue... Read more

Washington, DC; December 11, 2015 — The Internet Commerce Association today released the following initial statement in regard to the November 30 decision of the WIPO Administrative Panel in the case of Camilla Australia Pty Ltd v. Domain Admin, Mrs Jello, LLC (Case No. D2015-1593; http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/text.jsp?case=D2015...

On November 30th ICA filed its comment letter regarding the “Preliminary Issue Report on a GNSO Policy Development Process to Review All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs” that was published for public comment on October 9, 2015. ICA’s complete comment can be viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-rpm-prelim-issue-09oct15/msg0002 1....

On November 5, 2015 the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) released the official text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). That text consists of 30 separate Chapters totaling more than 2,000 pages, and is accompanied by four additional Annexes and dozens of Related Instruments. Only those who negotiated it are likely to have a... Rea...

On October 13th ICA filed a formal Reconsideration Request (RR) asking ICANN’s Board Governance Committee (BGC) to rethink The Board’s approval of the renewal registry agreements (RAs) for .Travel, .Cat and .Pro. All three renewal agreements contain Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and other rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) drawn from the new gTLD...

Note: I first started this article in mid-September, and the opening quote from Yogi Berra was in the first draft because it seemed to fit the situation so well.. It was by sheer coincidence that it was first published on the day of his death. Consider that my unintended tribute to a great human being.... Read more

ICA and its members will have a major presence at The Domain Conference, a new industry gathering being held September 26-29 at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,. The four-day event will start with two days of relaxed poolside networking overlapping with three days of highly informative sessions... Read ...

Over the past week ICANN has opened dual comment periods on the interrelated proposals for transitioning oversight of the IANA root zone functions form the U.S. government to the multistakeholder ICANN community, and for significantly enhancing that community?s ability to hold ICANN?s Board and staff accountable. When the final proposals are implem...

On July 31st ICANN staff finally published the Report of Public Comments regarding the Proposed Renewal of .TRAVEL Sponsored TLD Registry Agreement, after missing the July 5th due date by more than three weeks. The Report accurately reflects that all but two of the many comments filed on the proposal opposed imposition of Uniform Rapid... Read more

Once again, as it was with .Travel, the vast majority of comments on the proposed renewal Registry Agreements (RAs) for the legacy .Cat and .Pro gTLDs are united in their opposition to imposition of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and other new gTLD rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) by contract, arguing that this is a consensus policy... Read more

? ICA Counsel Philip Corwin told ICANN?s Board of Directors that they needed to take responsibility, fully review, and ?own? the recent decision by Global Domains Division (GDD) staff to try to insert Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) in legacy gTLD contracts up for renewal ? and that any further alterations of the URS and other... Read more

The comment period on the proposed renewal registry agreement for the .Travel legacy gTLD closed on Sunday, June 21st and the comments submitted are overwhelmingly opposed to ICANN staff?s attempt to impose any of the new gTLD rights protection mechanisms, including Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), on legacy gTLDs through contracting rather than a f...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has just told ICANN to drop the notion of applying the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) dispute resolution system to .Travel and other legacy gTLDs without undertaking a full Policy Development Process (PDP). In a June 12 letter, EFF stated: ICANN should not apply URS to the .travel domain, or to... Read more

On May 29th ICANN staff issued its Report of Public Comments on the ?Draft Report: Rights Protection Mechanisms Review?. Back in May ICA advised ICANN that, ?ICA would vigorously oppose any attempt to amend the URS to provide a domain transfer option as such a rapid and circumscribed process could be readily abused to further... Read more

Just ten days ago we advised the domain investment community that ICANN staff was seeking to act in an unacceptably unaccountable manner that appears to violate ICANN?s own Bylaws by improperly imposing Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and other new gTLD program Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPM) implementations on legacy gTLDs. This would have the d...

  On May 12th ICANN posted the ?Proposed Renewal of .TRAVEL Sponsored TLD Registry Agreement? for a period of public comment ending June 21st. You?d expect ICANN staff to be on their best behavior right now, during ongoing community efforts to fashion enhanced and binding accountability measures. But instead this proposed Registry Agreement (R...

ICA Counsel Philip Corwin is quoted in a May 18th Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. The article, ?Obama?s Bungled Internet Surrender?, was penned by L. Gordon Crovitz, whose weekly column addresses technology-related policy matters. As the title suggests, Mr. Crovitz is not a fan of the Administration?s plan to relinquish its counterparty role on the IANA...

ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been invited to testify on ICA?s behalf before the House Judiciary Committee?s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. The Subcommittee is holding a hearing on Wednesday, May 13th on the subject of "Stakeholder Perspectives on ICANN: The .Sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and ...

On Thursday, April 30th ICA filed a comment letter with ICANN regarding the ?Draft Report: Rights Protection Mechanisms Review? published earlier this year.?This preliminary report paves the way for a more extensive issues report on the new gTLD RPMs that will be delivered to the GNSO Council this fall. That second report will not only... Read more

Daniel Marti was nominated to become the new White House ?IP Czar? in August 2014 to replace Victoria Espinel. His predecessor, in yet another illustration of Washington?s ?revolving door? shuffling key individuals between the government and private sector, departed the post a year earlier to become head of BSA/The Software Alliance, the leading tr...

Late on the evening on April 22nd the CWG-Stewardship on the IANA Naming Functions issued its second Draft Proposal for a 28-day public comment period that closes on May 20th. Information about the Proposal can be found in a news announcement and at the public comment page. ICANN has scheduled a 90-minute explanatory webinar on... Read more

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... Read mor...

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... Read more

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 ag...

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... Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

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 ...

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... Re...

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 multistake...

The ICA, speaking on behalf of domain investors and developers, has joined with other organizations representing civil society, internet domain registries, internet service providers and internet companies to communicate their joint concerns regarding a ?trademark package? currently being considered by the Council of the European Union. Adoption of...

ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been elected by the members of ICANN?s Business Constituency to be one of the two Councilors representing it on the GNSO Council. The Council is the policymaking body for all gTLD-related issues. It will review and decide whether to endorse the proposals eventually produced by the two cross community working... Read mo...

The Congressional Internet Caucus held its 15th annual State of the Net conference today at The Newseum in Washington, DC. This is traditionally a start the new year networking and information update day for the capital?s technology policy set. Immediately following the lunch break, at a session titled ?Internet Functions in Transition: Is the US.....

ICANN staff have requested a six-month delay in the delivery date of a Preliminary Issue Report on the "current state of all rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) implemented for both existing and new gTLDs, including but not limited to the UDRP and the URS?.? The request is contained in a January 5, 2015 e-mail sent by... Read more

On the evening of Tuesday, September 9th, Congressional leaders unveiled a 1,603 page, $1.01 trillion FY 2015 appropriations bill to fund the U.S. government through the end of September 2015. One provision of the omnibus bill would delay the IANA transition until after the September 30, 2015 expiration of the current contract between the NTIA... R...

On November 10th the US District Court for the District of Columbia granted ICANN?s motion to quash a writ of attachment and a related motion for further discovery in a politically charged case in which private plaintiffs sought to seize control of Iran?s .IR country code top level domain (ccTLD). The litigation was brought under... Read more

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... Read more

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... Read more

The Shimkus Amendment to the $601 billion National Defense Authorization Act (HR 4435) passed the House of Representatives yesterday on a mostly partisan vote of 245 – 177. While all 228 Republicans present and voting supported the amendment only 17 Democrats voted “aye”, with 177 in opposition. Final passage on the entire bill was a bipartisan vot...

In an unanticipated move a third Committee of the US House of Representatives has weighed in with concerns regarding the NTIA’s proposed transition of the US role as counterparty to ICANN’s IANA functions contract to one with the “global multistakeholder community”. read more

We have finally had a chance to review the transcript of the Public Forum with the ICANN Board held on March 27th in Singapore. ICA generally takes advantage of those opportunities for interaction to acquaint the Board with matters of concern to the domain investment community. read more

On April 24th the NETmundial “Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance” concluded with the issuance of an eight-page statement. This non-binding document is hardly the “Magna Carta for the Internet” called for in an opening statement delivered by Tim Berners Lee, but it does set the stage for the other two major 2014 eve...

The NETmundial meeting in Sao Paulo kicked off on the morning of April 23rd and one of the speakers at its Opening Ceremony proclaimed that the Internet was a curious type of “Public Commons” in which private domain registrants should be obligated to pay a fee to fund access, capacity-building, and general bridging of the Internet gap between the d...

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 “n...

Concern over IANA Transition Going Bipartisan 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 questi...