Subject: | [council] Call for Volunteers: New GNSO Policy Development Process Working Group to Review All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs |
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Date: | Mon, 21 Mar 2016 21:03:23 +0000 |
From: | Glen de Saint Géry <[log in to unmask]> |
To: | GNSO Council List ([log in to unmask]) <[log in to unmask]> |
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2016-03-21-en
The Generic Names Supporting Organization
(GNSO) Council seeks volunteers for a new Working Group that
will conduct a Policy Development Process (PDP) to Review
All Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in All Generic
Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). The GNSO Council approved the PDP
Working Group's
Charter [PDF, 510 KB] on 9 March 2016.
1.
Conduct the PDP in two phases
This PDP Working Group is being chartered to
conduct a review of all RPMs in all gTLDs in two phases as
defined in the
approved charter [PDF, 524 KB]: Phase One will focus on a
review of all the RPMs that were developed for the New gTLD
Program (i.e. the Trademark Clearinghouse and associated
notification and sunrise mechanisms, the Uniform Rapid
Suspension procedure, and the Post-Delegation Dispute
Resolution Procedures), and Phase Two will focus on a review
of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
At a minimum, in each Phase of this PDP, the
Working Group will be expected to first assess the
effectiveness of the relevant RPM(s), for which it should
seek the input of experienced online dispute resolution
providers and other subject matter experts, as appropriate.
The Working Group is also expected to look at the interplay
between and complementary roles of each RPM in seeking to
more fully understand their overall functioning and
effectiveness. Ultimately, the goal is for the Working Group
to consider the overarching issue as to whether or not all
the RPMs collectively fulfill the purposes for which they
were created, or whether additional policy recommendations
are needed, including to clarify and unify the policy goals.
In public comments to the
UDRP Final Issue Report [PDF, 2.69 MB], the RPM Staff Paper [PDF 2.5 MB], and the Preliminary Issue Report for this PDP, various community groups and
participants had identified a number of issues that they
considered appropriate for review in a PDP. As such, the
Working Group is expected to consider these community
suggestions, which have been listed in the Working Group
Charter, with further modifications, additions and deletions
to be determined by consensus of the Working Group.
2.
Coordinate its work with other parallel
efforts
The Working Group will monitor the progress of
and, where appropriate, coordinate with, other ICANN groups
that are working on topics that may overlap with or
otherwise provide useful input to this PDP. These other
efforts include the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer
Choice Review Team, the Trademark Clearinghouse Independent
Review and the GNSO's PDP Working Group on New gTLDs
Subsequent Procedures. In this regard, the GNSO Council
directed that a GNSO community liaison be appointed by the
two GNSO PDP Working Groups. Further, as the manager of the
policy development process, the GNSO Council is to be kept
informed about the various coordination efforts so that in
case of conflict between these groups, the Council may take
the appropriate action to align the different work
processes.
At the conclusion of Phase One of its work, the
Working Group is expected to assess the need for
modification to its Charter and, if appropriate, submit a
request to the GNSO Council accordingly for the subsequent
phase(s) of its work.
ICANN Working Groups use transparent, open
processes. The meetings of this PDP Working Group will be
recorded and transcribed, and the recordings and
transcriptions will be available to the public. The mailing
list for the Working Group will be archived publicly. The
group will collaborate using a public workspace for draft
materials and all final work products and milestones will be
documented on the
WG's wiki. The PDP WG is expected to follow the GNSO Working Group Guidelines [PDF, 350 KB] as well as the GNSO PDP Manual [PDF, 300 KB].
There are two ways to volunteer:
In addition, there will be opportunities to
provide input through public consultations and public
comment processes that the PDP Working Group is expected to
organize.
If you are interested in joining the Working
Group either as an individual participant or mailing list
observer, please fill in the
sign
up form or send the
Word document [DOCX, 72 KB], filled in, to the
GNSO Secretariat.
All members and observers will be listed on the
PDP Working Group's wiki page.
The GNSO Council directed that this call for
volunteers be circulated as widely as possible in order to
ensure broad representation and participation in the Working
Group. it is anticipated that the Working Group will convene
online for the first time in early April 2016. Following
that, regular online meetings will be scheduled in
accordance with the Working Group's work plan, which it is
expected to develop as one of its first tasks.
For those interested in volunteering for this
effort, you are strongly encouraged to review the following
materials prior to the first meeting of the PDP WG:
The question of who legally has rights to, or
is the legitimate holder of, a domain name can be open to
dispute. In relation to domain name disputes concerning the
registration and use of legally protected trademarks, the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is the longest standing alternative dispute
resolution procedure. As a result of the New gTLD Program,
several new rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) were
developed to mitigate potential risks and costs to trademark
rights holders that could arise in the expansion of the gTLD
namespace, which included certain safeguards to protect
registrants who engage in legitimate uses of domain names:
the
Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS); the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) and the associated availability through the
TMCH of Sunrise periods and the Trademark Claims
notification service; and
the Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution
Procedures (PDDRPs). Prior to the launch of the New gTLD Program,
on 3 October 2011 ICANN staff had published a Final Issue
Report on the current state of the UDRP. The recommended
course of action in that
UDRP Final Issue Report [PDF, 2.69 MB] was not to initiate a PDP at
the time, but to hold off launching any such PDP until after
the new URS had been in operation for at least eighteen (18)
months. In addition, the September 2015 revised
RPM Staff Paper [PDF 2.5 MB] had explicitly noted that some of
the concerns identified by the community for consideration
as part of a review of the RPMs might be appropriate topics
for policy development work. The UDRP has not been subject
to comprehensive review. There has also not been a full
review of all the RPMs developed to date by ICANN, to
consider whether or not they are collectively achieving the
objectives for which they were created.
In preparation for this PDP, a new
Preliminary Issue Report [PDF, 1.4 MB] was published for public comment on 9 October 2015. A Final Issue Report [PDF, 1.2 MB] was subsequently published on 7
October 2015, including links to all public comments
received, along with a draft charter for the
PDP WG [PDF, 510 KB]. The final charter was approved
by the GNSO Council on 9 March 2016, enabling the formation of a GNSO working
group of community volunteers to conduct this PDP.
More information can be found on the activities
webpage for
GNSO PDP Review of All Rights Protection
Mechanisms in All gTLDs and the Working Group's online wiki workspace, which includes the charter, community input
provided during the public comment period, and an extensive
library of foundational materials to inform the Working
Group's deliberations.
As this will be a complex multi-phase PDP,
anyone interested in helping to shape the review of all RPMs
in all gTLDs are encouraged to volunteer for this Working
Group
Glen
de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
[log in to unmask]
http://gnso.icann.org