Hi All,

I wanted to share an update on the STI – the Special Trademarks Issues Committee that worked nonstop from Seoul through early Dec. to re-think and re-write the Trademark Clearinghouse and Uniform Rapid Suspension (originally proposals of the IRT).  Our STI Team - Wendy, Konstantinos, Robin & I- worked to make the proposals fairer, more balanced and with much more due process. 

Here’s the latest: the STI proposals went before the public and comments were due at the end of January.  The comment summary was issued by Staff a week ago.  It is posted at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/summary-analysis-special-trademarks-issues-report-15feb10-en.pdf .  In a nutshell, it says: “The recommendations contained in the GNSO STI Report reflect the carefully negotiated consensus position of the STI drafting team... Staff’s approach … is to adopt substantially all of the GNSO-STI Model.”  Hooray – hard effort, cooperation and negotiation make a difference!

Now ICANN has adopted the STI proposals in two more details pieces – two final proposals on the Clearinghouse and URS now open for public comment.  They are posted at: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#urs and http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#tmc Comments are due by April 1^st.

I would recommend that NCUC appoint a small team to:

+ strongly support the work of ICANN in adopting a fairer and more balanced approach (!),

+ review these final proposals carefully,

+ determine whether the final reports adopt all of the carefully negotiating positions of the STI, including implementation details (details matter!),

+ offer changes, if any, needed to better align the final Staff reports with the STI work, and

+ support our greatest contributions, including limiting the Clearinghouse to registered federal/regional trademarks and text marks.

Overall, it has been a great group effort and we are in the final round!

All the best,

Kathy