The ICANN Board ruled last week the application for the .amazon gTLD, including its related internationalised domain names in Japanese and Chinese should not proceed.The decision came about after the board accepted the advice of the New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC). And while it is possible the applications could proceed at some stage in the future, this is very unlikely.The applications had been vigorously opposed by the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, with the full support of the Amazon basin countries.In a statement to the 47th ICANN Durban meeting, the “involved governments … expressed serious concerns related to public interest. In particular “.amazon” is a geographic name that represents important territories of some of our countries, which have relevant communities, with their own culture and identity directly connected with the name. Beyond the specifics, this should also be understood as a matter of principle.”In making its recommendation, the NGPC took into account the issues raised by the applicant, the GAC advice and an independent, third-party expert commissioned by ICANN “to provide additional analysis on the specific issues of application of law at issue, which may focus on legal norms or treaty conventions relied on by Amazon or governments.”The Expert Analysis considered “whether the consensus advice issued by the GAC is of such nature as to oblige ICANN to reject the application filed by Amazon, or to the contrary, whether the rules and principles cited by Amazon in its response of 23 August 2013 to the GAC’s advice oblige ICANN to approve the applications for .AMAZON (and related IDNs). The Expert Analysis concludes the following:
As regards the application for assignment of the new gTLD ‘.amazon’ filed by the Amazon company:
i) there is no rule of international, or even regional or national, law applicable in the field of geographical indications which obliges ICANN to reject the application;
ii) there is no rule of international, or even regional or national, law applicable in the field of intellectual property and in particular of trade marks or in the field of fundamental rights, which obliges ICANN to accept this application.”The ICANN Bylaws require the Board to take into account the GAC’s advice on public policy matters in the formulation and adoption of the policies. If the Board decides to take an action that is not consistent with the GAC advice, it must inform the GAC and state the reasons why it decided not to follow the advice. The Board and the GAC will then try in good faith to find a mutually acceptable solution. If no solution can be found, the Board will state in its final decision why the GAC advice was not followed.The board decided to “accept the GAC’s advice to the ICANN Board contained in the GAC’s Durban Communiqué stating that it is the consensus of the GAC that the applications for .AMAZON (application number 1-1315-58086) and related IDNs in Japanese (application number 1-1318-83995) and Chinese (application number 1-1318-5591) should not proceed.”More details of the NGPC advice are available from:
www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-new-gtld-14may14-en.htm#2.b.rationale
Tag Archives: Uruguay
ICANN’s Global Empire Spreads To Latin America With Engagement Centre
ICANN has announced they will be opening an engagement centre in Montevideo, Uruguay, as it opens offices in strategic locations around the globe.”The opening of this regional engagement centre is part of our growing effort to establish an ICANN presence in all parts of the globe,” said Fadi Chehadé, ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer.”We are not merely saying to people ‘come to us.’ We are going to them. We are reaching out to the Latin American/Caribbean region with representatives who will live and work in the area.”The ICANN engagement centre will be based in the House of the Internet, where several other Internet organisations are located, including: The Internet Society, the Latin American and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LANIC), The Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD) and the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Exchange Association (LAC-IX).The announcement comes about following criticisms in recent months that ICANN is too US-centric, and with calls at the International Telecommunication Union’s World Conference of International Telecommunications conference in Dubai in December 2012 for the ITU to take on ICANN’s role among other internet governance roles.The opening of the engagement centre is undoubtedly part of Chehadé’s goal to make ICANN more engaged globally, but also to head off criticisms from country’s such as Russia and Brazil who support the ITU becoming more involved in internet governance. The announcement also follows the organisation’s decision to open offices in Singapore and Istanbul, Turkey, and the first engagement centre, which was announced at the ICANN meeting in Beijing, China, and which would be located there.”ICANN´s decision to establish its Engagement Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean at the House of the Internet makes us proud and at the same time confirms the value of this initiative that recently celebrated its first anniversary,” said Raúl Echeberría, CEO of LACNIC. “All of the organisations in the house will benefit and be strengthened in the achievement of their own objectives and in the joint work for the sake of the community in Latin America and the Caribbean”.”I recently visited the House of the Internet,” said ICANN Board Chair, Dr. Stephen Crocker. “This is a fantastic model, where a number of different Internet organisations can coordinate their efforts and even share resources, working together for the benefit of Internet users across the region.”It was during the Beijing meeting that a Multi-stakeholder Steering Committee for the Latin American and Caribbean region presented a 3-year strategic plan aimed at strengthening the Internet critical infrastructure in the region. The committee is made up of regional representatives of Internet users groups, the technical community, the private sector and governments.
.UY Opens Up Registrations At Second Level
Registrations of .UY domain names at the second level were opened to all eligible registrants on 10 July.
The opening up of registrations at the second level followed a transition period where any .UY domain name that was registered at the third level on 10 June 2012 was automatically given the equivalent second level domain free for one year. Following this registrants must renew their domains as they would any other domain. For any conflicts, uynic developed rules that are available in Spanish on the registry website.
The changes also saw a near doubling of registrations for the ccTLD overnight on 12 June with an additional 33,929 domains added.
For more information, including how conflicts were dealt with, check out the uynic website, in Spanish only, at www.nic.org.uy
Latin American Domain Registrations Continue to Grow
There are now more than 4.86 million domain names registered in the Latin American region, an increase of 1.86 per cent since August and a 17.40 per cent increase year-on-year.
The largest growth in registrations in September was in the country code Top Level Domain for Brazil (.BR) with total registrations growing by 39,496. This was followed by Argentina (.AR â 31,872), Mexico (.MX â 9,806) and Chile (.CL â 3,923).
However on a percentage basis, the ccTLD that showed the greatest growth was Anguilla (.AI) where there was an astonishing increasing in registrations of 1,348 per cent, although this was too the very modest total of 391 registrations. This is reflected by a change in a change in the ccTLDâs terms and conditions with registration of .AI domain names now open to all and not just residents of Anguilla as before.
Following was Guadeloupe (.GD â 4.53%), Mexico (2.79%) and then Guatemala (.GT) and Uruguay (.UG), both with a monthly increase of 2.68 per cent.
Overall, the top five ccTLDs in total registrations remained the same as before. These were .AR with 2,001,844 registrations, .BR (1,848,161), .MX (361,597), .CL (259,914) and .VE (152,799). These were the only five ccTLDs with registrations above 100,000 in Latin America.
To register domain names for Latin American ccTLDs, check out America Registry here.
The above information was sourced from information provided by LatinoamerICANN at latinoamericann.org/?q=node/2006.
Thanks to NameAction for alerting us to the above information.