As part of the orderly transition at the management level that’s happening at the .de ccTLD registry DENIC, Thomas Keller joined the DENIC Executive Board as new full-time member on 1 October. This follows his appointment in June by the Supervisory Board and DENIC General Assembly to succeed Dr. Jörg Schweiger, who announced earlier this year he was stepping down on 31 December.
The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) to chair the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team. The Council approved the formation of the team and provided instructions during its meeting on 22 July 2021. The deadline to submit an EOI has been extended to Thursday, 9 September 2021 (23:59 UTC).
[news release] The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) to chair the Registration Data Accuracy Scoping Team. The Council approved the formation of the team and provided instructions during its meeting on 22 July 2021.
Thomas Keller has been announced as the replacement of Dr. Jörg Schweiger as one of the two full-time members on DENIC’s Cooperative’s Executive Board, commencing on 1 January 2022. Schweiger, the current CEO, announced in December 2020 he will step down on 31 December 2021.
[news release] The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) welcomes anyone to join as a participant or an observer.
Purpose: This public comment proceeding seeks to obtain community input prior to Board action on certain final policy recommendations from the Generic Names Supporting Organization Policy Development Process on IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms.
Current Status: The GNSO Council approved PDP Recommendations 1-4 during its meeting on 18 April 2019. The GNSO Council did not approve PDP Recommendation 5 which therefore does not form part of this public comment proceeding.
Next Steps: The ICANN Board is expected to meet to discuss taking action on the four approved recommendations following the close of this public comment proceeding.
At its meeting on 18 April 2019, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council voted to adopt Recommendations 1-4 contained in the Final Report from the Working Group that it had chartered to conduct a Policy Development Process (PDP) to develop policy recommendations concerning access to curative rights protection mechanisms by International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs). The four approved recommendations are being sent to the ICANN Board for its review. In line with the ICANN Bylaws, this public comment proceeding is being opened so that the community has a reasonable opportunity to comment on the four recommendations prior to Board action.
The four recommendations approved by the GNSO Council include the following points: no substantive changes to existing rights protection mechanisms are needed for INGOs; no specific new dispute resolution procedures should be created for IGOs; and clarifying policy guidance is to be developed as to the the filing of complaints by IGOs under the existing procedures.
The fifth and final PDP recommendation was not approved by the GNSO Council and as such does not form part of this public comment proceeding.
In June 2014, the GNSO Council approved a resolution to initiate a PDP, which was directed to consider whether, in light of the specific needs and circumstances of IGOs and INGOs: (1) the curative rights protection mechanisms currently in place for both existing and new generic top level domains (gTLDs) should be amended and, if so, in what respects; or (2) a separate, narrowly-tailored dispute resolution procedure modeled on the existing curative rights protection mechanisms should be developed.
In order to arrive at a set of preliminary recommendations and conclusions, the Working Group analyzed the questions outlined in its Charter, reviewed historical documentation related to the topic, reached out to the community for input, and sought the opinion of an international legal expert to provide guidance on relevant legal instruments and applicable international law. On 20 January 2017, the PDP WG published its Initial Report for public comment. Following an extensive review of all the public comments received as well as additional discussions over a number of policy options developed subsequent to the Initial Report, the Working Group finalized its recommendations and submitted its Final Report to the GNSO Council on 9 July 2018. The Final Report included three Minority Statements filed by three members of the Working Group. These Minority Statements can be found in Annex B of the Final Report.
At its meeting on 19 July 2018, the GNSO Council resolved to acknowledge and accept the Final Report from the IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Mechanisms PDP Working Group, and noted that it would consider the topic of curative rights protections for IGOs in the broader context of the appropriate overall scope of protection for all IGO identifiers. Due to GNSO Council concerns, the Final Report was discussed extensively both during a webinar and over the course of several GNSO Council Meetings, where discussion was undertaken to determine the best course of action for the Working Group’s Final Report recommendations. On 18 April 2019, the Council resolved to approve recommendations 1-4 and refer recommendation 5 to be considered by the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs PDP as part of its Phase 2 work. This public comment proceeding is only in respect to recommendations adopted by the GNSO Council, which are recommendations 1-4.
IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms PDP WG Final Report
Open Date: 11 Jul 2019
Close Date: 20 Aug 2019
Staff Report Due: 3 Sep 2019
This ICANN public comment notice was sourced from: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/igo-ingo-crp-recommendations-2019-07-11-en
The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) is looking for expressions of interest to chair its Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) team on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data. The EPDP team is being formed following the adoption of the Temporary Specification by the ICANN Board, which went into effect on 25 May 2018.
The EPDP team is required to complete its work before the expiration of the Temporary Specification on 24 May 2019.
The GNSO Council is looking to appoint a neutral Chair to the EPDP team. While the EPDP Chair may be a member of a group already represented on the EPDP team, the EPDP Chair shall not act in a manner which favors such group. With such an important issue under consideration, significant responsibility comes with the role to ensure the success of deliberations.
The EPDP team is expected to have weekly calls, although it may be necessary to hold multiple calls per week. Additionally, the EPDP team may have multiple face-to-face meetings in order to meet the required milestones of the EPDP. An illustrative timeline has been included in Annex B; the bulk of the EPDP team work is expected to take place between now and February 2019.
There will be no compensation associated with the role of the EPDP Team Chair; however, travel associated with any face-to-face meetings may be supported.
To express interest in this role, please submit an Expression of Interest that answers the following questions:
Expressions of Interest are to be submitted to EOI-EPDPTeam-Chair@icann.org by 13 July 2018 at 14:00 UTC.
Application materials will be reviewed by the Council leadership and/or a designated committee and will not be shared publicly. Names of applicants, including the recommended candidate, will be shared with the GNSO Council for its consideration. The Council leadership and/or designated committee is expected to provide its recommendation to the GNSO Council in time for the GNSO Council meeting scheduled for 19 July 2018. The EPDP team is expected to convene for its first meeting shortly thereafter and is expected to be asked to appoint two vice-chairs to support the EPDP Team Chair.
Additional questions and inquiries can be sent to EOI-EPDPTeam-Chair@icann.org.
For more information on the Temporary Specification, please see https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/gtld-registration-data-specs-en. Additional information about the EPDP is located in Annex-A1 of the ICANN Bylaws https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#annexA1 and the EPDP Manual https://gnso.icann.org/en/council/annex-4-epdp-manual-30jan18-en.pdf.
As outlined in the GNSO Working Group Guidelines (WGG), the purpose of a Chair is to call meetings, preside over working group deliberations, manage the process so that all participants have the opportunity to contribute, and report the results of the Working Group to the Chartering Organization. These tasks require a dedicated time commitment as each week calls have to be prepared, the agenda concretized, and relevant material has to be reviewed. The Chair shall be neutral. While the Chair may be a member of any group which also has representation on the EPDP Team, the Chair shall not act in a manner which favors such group. The Chair shall not be a member of the PDP Team for purposes of consensus calls.
In addition, it is required â that interested candidates have considerable experience in Chairing working groups, and direct experience with at least one GNSO Policy Development Process throughout its lifecycle would be an advantage. Familiarity with the functioning of a Working Group is important to understand the various leadership skills that are necessary to employ during a WGâs lifecycle. For example, a chair has to ensure that debates are conducted in an open and transparent matter and that all interests are equally represented within the Groupâs discussions. During the later stages of a WG when recommendations are drafted, a Chair will benefit from understanding the viewpoints of various members to ensure that an acceptable and effective outcome â ideally in form of consensus â can be achieved.
In short, the EPDP Team Chair is expected to:
Finally, as also pointed out the in GNSO Working Group Guidelines, âappointing a co-chair(s) or vice-chair(s) may facilitate the work of the Chair by ensuring continuity in case of absence, sharing of workload, and allowing the Chair to become engaged in a particular debate.â As a result, similar tasks and skills are expected from vice chairs, although the overall workload may be reduced as a result of being able to share this with the chair.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2018-07-02-en
ICANN is seeking to identify one or more suppliers qualified to develop and conduct survey(s) to assess the use and effectiveness of Sunrise and Trademark Claims Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs). These RPMs are services provided through ICANN‘s Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) for trademark owners.
RPMs refer to those policies and processes developed to provide workable mechanisms for trademark owners to either prevent or remedy certain unauthorized use of their trademarks in the domain name system. The Sunrise service provides priority access to rights holders to request domain names associated with their trademark(s). The Trademark Claims service provides notification to: (a) a potential domain name registrant attempting to register a domain name that matches a trademark record entered into the TMCH, and (b) a rights holder after registration of a matching domain name.
As Sunrise and Trademark Claims RPMs have not been subject to policy review to date, no comprehensive, publicly available data currently exists that measures their effectiveness. By surveying the specific respondent groups identified by the ICANN community as most affected by Sunrise and Trademark Claims RPMs, ICANN aims to assist the community to evaluate the efficacy of these RPMs, as well as bolster ICANN‘s data collection efforts related to the RPMs.
For a complete overview of the RFP including the timeline, please see here [PDF, 86 KB].
Indications of interest are to be received by emailing RPMs.Survey-rfp@icann.org. Proposals should be electronically submitted by 23:59 UTC on 09 March 2018 using ICANN‘s sourcing tool, access to which may be requested via the same email address above.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2018-01-29-en
The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process Working Group seeks volunteers to serve on a new sub team, known as Work Track 5, which will focus exclusively on the treatment of geographic names at the top level. This issue is one of the topics in the WG‘s charter [PDF, 196 KB].
Work Track 5 will focus on developing proposed recommendations regarding the treatment of geographic names at the top-level. The Work Track may make recommendations on policy and/or implementation related to 2-letter codes, 3-letter codes, short form and full country and territory names, city/state/region names, and other geographically significant names.
ICANN WGs use transparent, open processes. The meetings of this Work Track will be recorded, transcribed, and the recordings will be made available to the public. The mailing list for the Work Track 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. In addition to a Terms of Reference, the Work Track will be governed under the GNSO Working Group Guidelines [PDF, 349 KB] as well as the GNSO PDP Manual [PDF, 260 KB].
The Work Track will be structured to encourage broad and balanced participation from different parts of the community, and includes joint community Work Track leadership from ALAC, GAC, ccNSO and GNSO. As with the other Work Tracks, WT5 leadership will be coordinated by the PDP WG co-chairs.
There are two ways to volunteer:
In addition, there may be opportunities to provide input through public consultations and public comment processes. Note, joining Work Track 5 as a member or mailing list observer does not require joining or participating in the full Working Group, though it is encouraged.
If you are interested in joining Work Track 5 as a member or mailing list observer, please fill in the sign up form. If you are having trouble using the sign-up form, please email gnso-secs@icann.org for assistance.
All members and observers will be listed on the PDP WG‘s wiki page.
The call for volunteers will be circulated as widely as possible in order to ensure broad representation and participation in Work Track 5. This initial call will remain open until 20 November. Volunteers are also welcome to join the Work Track at any time after 20 November. Members who join the Work Track after work has begun will be responsible for reviewing all Work Track deliberations, agreements, and documents so that they are prepared to participate fully. Regular online meetings will be scheduled in accordance with the Work Track’s work plan, which it is expected to develop as one of its first tasks.
Drafting of WT5 Terms of Reference is currently underway with the WT leadership and will be finalized in the near future.
In 2005, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) began a Policy Development Process (PDP) to consider the introduction of new gTLDs. The two-year PDP process resulted in a set of 19 GNSO policy recommendations for implementing new gTLDs. In order to implement the policy recommendations of the GNSO, a number of draft Applicant Guidebooks (AGBs) were developed by ICANN staff in consultation with the community. In June 2011, ICANN‘s Board of Directors approved the final AGB and authorized the launch of the New gTLD Program.
The New gTLD Program application window opened on 12 January 2012 and a total of 1930 complete applications were received. The first set of Initial Evaluation results were released on 22 March 2013, followed by the first set of new gTLD delegations on 21 October 2013.
All applications have now completed the evaluation process and as of mid October 2017, there are over 1,200 gTLDs delegated. Although the 2012 round is ongoing, efforts to examine the round have already begun, which included the initiation of the GNSO‘s PDP on New gTLD Subsequent Procedures in early 2016.
Although the original charter [PDF, 196 KB] approved by the GNSO Council put the topic of geographic names at the top level in Work Track 2 dealing with legal and regulatory issues, the full PDP Working Group approved the creation of this new Work Track 5 to focus exclusively on the treatment of geographic names at the top level.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-10-22-en
Purpose: On 1 December 2016, the GNSO Council directed ICANN Policy Staff to draft proposed language for any necessary modifications or additions to the GNSO Operating Procedures and, if applicable, those parts of the ICANN Bylaws pertaining to the GNSO as a result of the work of the GNSO Rights & Obligations under Revised Bylaws Drafting Team. This Drafting Team was tasked to identify the GNSO‘s new rights and obligations under the revised ICANN Bylaws which were adopted following the IANA Stewardship transition.
Current Status: A redline version of the GNSO Operating Procedures [PDF, 1 MB | DOCX, 380 KB] incorporating these changes, as well as the section of the ICANN Bylaws pertaining to the GNSO [PDF, 39 KB | DOCX, 23 KB] are now published for public comment.
Next Steps: Following the close of the public comment forum, the GNSO Council will review the input received and determine what steps are to be taken next, which could include further modifications and/or approval of the proposed changes. Note that any changes to the ICANN Bylaws will also need to be approved by the ICANN Board before these come into effect.
On 1 December 2016, the GNSO Council directed ‘ICANN Policy Staff to draft proposed language for any necessary modifications or additions to the GNSO Operating Procedures and, if applicable, those parts of the ICANN Bylaws pertaining to the GNSO. In its analysis of the Drafting Team (DT) recommendations (see https://gnso.icann.org/en/drafts/bylaws-drafting-team-final-report-12oct16-en.pdf [PDF, 278 KB]), staff took a minimalist approach by focusing on the minimum changes needed to implement the DT recommendations, recognizing that in certain cases additional work may be desirable to facilitate the GNSO‘s participation in the Empowered Community, such as creating templates or fact sheets. Where applicable, this further work has been flagged.
Based on the analysis of the DT recommendations, staff concluded that any necessary modifications or additions could basically be categorized as follows:
The following staff report provides further details on how each of the DT recommendations has been addressed and in which category each of the items falls: [PDF, 522 KB | DOCX, 92 KB]. The proposed changes to the GNSO Operating Procedures can be reviewed here: [PDF, 1 MB | DOCX, 380 KB]. The proposed changes to the section in the ICANN Bylaws pertaining to the GNSO can be found here: [PDF, 39 KB | DOCX, 23 KB].
In addition to these modifications, the redline version also includes the following updates:
1 Note, this only applies to voting thresholds that are not already specifically called out in the ICANN Bylaws but which are the result of the Bylaws DT recommendations.
On 27 May 2016 the ICANN Board adopted a set of new ICANN Bylaws that reflect changes needed to implement the IANA Stewardship Transition Proposal. Following the completion of the transition, the GNSO Council recognized that changes may need to be made to the GNSO‘s current Operating Procedures and related mechanisms and to the ICANN Bylaws. The goal is to give effect to the new roles and obligations of the GNSO under the new ICANN Bylaws, such as those in this table [PDF, 241 KB], including but not limited to the GNSO‘s participation in the Empowered Community. It tasked the GNSO Rights & Obligations under Revised Bylaws Drafting Team to put forward recommendations for needed further changes to ICANN Bylaws and/or GNSO Operating Procedures to enable effective GNSO participation in ICANN activities. The GNSO Council accepted the DT Final Report on 01 December 2016 and directed “ICANN Policy Staff to draft proposed language for any necessary modifications or additions to the GNSO Operating Procedures and, if applicable, those parts of the ICANN Bylaws pertaining to the GNSO“. Furthermore, the GNSO Council requested that “ICANN Legal evaluate whether the proposed modifications are consistent with the post-transition Bylaws and report their findings to the GNSO Council”. Staff then analyzed the recommendations and responded with its assessment as well as a number of clarifying questions to the DT (see http://mm.icann.org/pipermail/gnso-bylaws-dt/2017-March/000170.html). A number of subsequent meetings between the DT and staff were held to resolve these questions and addressed any concerns that were raised (see [PDF, 522 KB | DOCX, 92 KB]). Following that, the DT recommendations were translated into the above outlined changes in the GNSO Operating Procedures and ICANN Bylaws which are now published for public comment prior to consideration by the GNSO Council and the ICANN Board (in the case of the ICANN Bylaws).
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/public-comments/gnso-op-procedures-2017-06-19-en