Hello everybody,

In case you haven't seen this, ICANN ombudsman Chris LaHatte has just posted a notice of our Councilor Maria Farrell's complaint regarding the recent holding of closed (unrecorded) invitation-only meetings in Brussels and LA, convened by CEO Fadi Chehade, to discuss (ostensibly) the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) implementation/technical details, but which also discussed recent requests by the IP & Business Constituencies to reopen certain issues that some considered agreed policy, others implementation: https://omblog.icann.org/?p=827

As there was much interest and lively discussion on our list on this topic, I thought it might be useful for those who expressed views on the issue - especially those who agree that this type of meeting doesn't bode well for transparency, inclusiveness and equal multi-stakeholder participation - to weigh in by either emailing Chris or submitting comments on the blog.

I leave it to our elected officials to decide if a formal statement from either/both Constituencies and/or the SG as a whole would be appropriate.

Cheers
Mary

Mary W S Wong
Professor of Law
Director, Franklin Pierce Center for IP
Chair, Graduate IP Programs
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL OF LAW
Two White Street
Concord, NH 03301
USA
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 1-603-513-5143
Webpage: http://www.law.unh.edu/marywong/index.php
Selected writings available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=437584