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 1st.
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