[council] RE: Letter on IGO protections

[Phil Corwin <psc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Please be advised that I wish to address this topic during the AOB portion that 
concludes our call tomorrow morning.

Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
Virtualaw LLC
1155 F Street, NW
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Washington, DC 20004
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Twitter: @VlawDC

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Mary Wong
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:13 PM
To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [council] Letter on IGO protections

Dear Councilors,

In respect of the ongoing discussions between the Board's New gTLD Program 
Committee (NGPC) and the GAC on protection for IGO names and acronyms, please 
see the following letter, just sent by the Secretary-General of the OECD to 
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade: 
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/gurria-to-chehade-20jul15-en.pdf.
 Note that the letter refers to positive developments in this process that are 
expected to result in the delivery to the GNSO of an updated proposal. Given 
the GAC's recent Buenos Aires Communique calling for this to occur by the 
Dublin meeting, the Council may wish to note this as a possibility.

You will recall that from the GNSO perspective there are two aspects to the 
topic of IGO protections. First, there are the remaining inconsistencies 
between GAC advice and the GNSO's policy recommendations (adopted by the GNSO 
Council in November 2013) regarding so-called "preventative" (i.e. 
pre-registration) protections for IGO acronyms; and secondly, on so-called 
"curative" rights (i.e. post-registration dispute resolution procedures), there 
is an ongoing PDP with a Working Group co-chaired by Council member Phil Corwin 
and former Council member Petter Rindforth.

On the "preventative" issue, you may recall further that in June 2014 the NGPC 
had requested the GNSO Council to consider the possibility of amending those of 
its previously adopted recommendations on IGO acronyms that are inconsistent 
with GAC advice received on the topic. Those recommendations, developed by a 
PDP Working Group chaired by Council member Thomas Rickert, had been adopted by 
the Council in November 2013 but have not to date been adopted by the ICANN 
Board. Following discussions with NGPC member Chris Disspain in September 2014, 
the Council had sent a clarifying letter to the NGPC, the upshot of which was 
that the Council would not act on any possible amendment until further 
confirmation could be provided by the NGPC as to the status of its ongoing 
discussions with the GAC.

On the "curative rights" issue, the Council has been receiving regular updates 
from Phil and Petter as to the progress of the WG that they co-chair, 
highlighting the need for close engagement with the GAC on this issue. This has 
also been referenced in recent GAC Communiques, and the WG has been in periodic 
correspondence with the GAC and the IGOs. There was also an informal meeting 
between the WG co-chairs, the GAC Chair and two Vice-Chairs, and Mason Cole 
(GNSO-GAC liaison) in Buenos Aires.

We therefore draw this letter to your attention in light of the ongoing work 
within the GNSO on curative rights and the outstanding matter of preventative 
protection for IGO acronyms.

Cheers
Mary

Mary Wong
Senior Policy Director
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN)
Telephone: +1 603 574 4889
Email: mary.wong@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:mary.wong@xxxxxxxxx>