Discussions Show Progress
6 March 2009
Mexico City, Mexico… March 7, 2009: ICANN's 34th International public meeting in Mexico City has drawn to a close after the organization's Board of Directors approved the establishment by staff of an Implementation Recommendation Team (IRT) comprised of an internationally diverse group of people to develop and propose solutions to the over-arching issue of trademark protection in connection with the introduction of new generic top level domain names (gTLDs).
"The Board has clearly heard and believes strongly that the concerns of trademark holders must be addressed before this process is opened for applications," said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ICANN. "The establishment of this team, is an attempt to get proposed solutions from the people with skill in trademark protection and other issues."
The IRT will be comprised of people who put forward solutions in the first public comment period on the new GTLD Applicant Guidebook. The IRT has been asked to draft a report by 24 April for comment and to produce a final report no later than 24 May so it can be considered at ICANN's Sydney meeting in June.
The Mexico City meeting was also saw the release of a study that pointed to the public benefit of new gTLDs.
The study, commissioned by ICANN, was conducted by University of Chicago Economics Professor Dennis Carlton. "The likely effect of ICANN's proposal is to increase output, lower price and increase innovation," said Carlton. "I conclude that ICANN's proposed framework for introducing new TLDs is likely to improve consumer welfare by facilitating entry and creating new competition."
In other notable decisions, the Board discussed the substance of changes to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) which include:
These changes were unanimously agreed upon by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). The Board asked that the changes be published for public comment for no less than thirty days with a commitment to act on approval of the amendments at the earliest opportunity.
"This maintains a policy of timely, accurate and unrestricted public access to Whois data but also adds new enforcement tools which fits well with ICANN's increased emphasis on compliance" said Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.
Attendees of the Mexico City conference also discussed the impacts of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), which will allow internet uses to enter internet addresses in languages other than English.
Further, implementation of the upgrade of the Internet's protocol to IPv6, which will vastly expand the number of available Internet addresses was also a topic of discussion. Estimates are that under the current protocol (IPv4) the number of available internet addresses will be exhausted in 3 to 4 years.
Finally, ICANN Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush thanked the Internet Mexican Association (AMIPCI) for helping to coordinate and host the Mexico City Conference.
ICANN's next international public meeting is scheduled to take place in Sydney, Australia, 21- 26 June, 2009.