Draft Changes to String Similarity Review Proposed by GNSO Council – Public Comments Requested
11 June 2010
On 10 June, the GNSO Council passed a resolution requesting that a 21-day public comment period
be opened regarding a proposal to send the following letter be sent to Kurt Pritz, Senior Vice President, Services, copy to the ICANN Board, recommending that the Draft Applicant Guidebook version IV section on “Outcomes of the String Similarity Review” be amended to allow applicants to request an Extended Review under applicable terms similar to those provided for other issues such as “DNS Stability: String Review Procedure”. The GNSO Council further recommends that a section be added on “String Similarity – Extended Review” that parallels other such sections in Module 2.
The text of the GNSO Council resolution and draft letter may be found here
Background Information
The GNSO Council is concerned that the Draft Applicant Guidebook, Version 4 does not include an Extended Review option for strings that fail the initial evaluation for confusing similarity and likelihood to confuse. The GNSO Council in Recommendation #2 of the GNSO Final Report on the Introduction of New gTLDs in September 2007 intended to prevent confusing and detrimental similarity and not similarity that could serve the users of the Internet. More recently, the IDNG Drafting Team established by the GNSO Council has discussed various circumstances where applicants for strings that may be designated as confusingly similar in the initial evaluation may be able to present a case showing that the string is not detrimentally similar to another string. The Council proposes that a letter be sent recommending changes to the Draft Applicant Guidebook to address this concern.
Further Information
Full information about the new gTLD program may be found at: www.icann.org.
Comments are due by 2 July 2010.
Staff Responsible: Liz Gasster
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat