GNSO Council Teleconference Minutes
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12 April 2007 Proposed agenda and documents List of attendees: 16 Council Members GNSO Council Liaisons Rita Rodin - ICANN Board member Bruce Tonkin and Philip Sheppard chaired this meeting Item 1: Update any Statements of Interest Item 2: Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 28 March 2007 Item 3: Revision of Transfers Policy Ross Rader, chair of the Transfers Policy Review Committee, set up in mid 2005, reported that the committee's goal was to review the effectiveness of the existing Transfer Policy from an operational perspective and determine whether or not any amendments to the existing policy should be recommended for further examination in a policy development process by the GNSO and/or whether or not any additional work would be required on the implementation side at an ICANN Staff level. ICANN Staff prepared 3 summary documents 2) is some notes on possible tighter wording/clarifications to the existing policy. This consists of 4 points taken out of the previous "policy issues" list--all of these had to do with the reasons for denial section. <DenialClarifications-28mar07.doc> 3) is a revised list of policy issues with the above-mentioned items taken out. <Draft-TransfersPolicyList-28mar07> A set of recommendations has been drafted, which requires a final review by the committee. These will be reviewed and forwarded to the GNSO Council prior to the June meeting in Puerto Rica. Bruce Tonkin handed the Chair to Philip Sheppard for Item 4 concerning the ICANN Board election results. Item 4: Ratify election results for ICANN Board seat #13 Results of Election Board seat # 13 : The motion passes by voice vote. Decision 1: The GNSO Council resolved to ratify the election results for ICANN Board seat number 13 which were 21 votes for Bruce Tonkin, 3 abstentions, 3 votes not cast. Philip Sheppard, on behalf of the Council congratulated Bruce Tonkin and handed the chair back to him. Bruce Tonkin thanked the Council for their support and stated that he was prepared to continue chairing the Council until the council elected a new chair and/or he took his place on the ICANN Board in the beginning of June 2007, but that an election process for a new chair should be started based on previous procedures. Item 5: Ratify WHOIS working group statement of work and appoint an interim chair Maria Farrell summarised the changes to the charter proposed by various Council members on the mailing list: 1. Changes that related to the objective of the working group that should explicitly consider the implementation issues raised by Operational Point of Contact (OPOC). 2. Changes to the background section and information, ensuring an explicit reference to the definition of purpose agreed upon by Council on April 12 2006 3. The task force policy recommendations should be specified. 4. Changes referring to the work: 5. In the assignment of work, which third party and under which condition should have access to unpublished data. 6. Remove the GAC principles from the document. Bruce Tonkin summarised the discussion in Council and indicated where agreement appeared to have been reached: In the background section specifically include a reference to the council decision on the WHOIS purpose http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-12apr06.shtml Reference the three decisions made by the GNSO Council with respect to the work of the WHOIS task force (e.g the decision regarding the definition of purpose) and summarise what they were about in two or three sentences: Refer to that GAC principles In section 3, the policy recommendations being referred to should be specified in a footnote. In section 4B, the motion passed in Lisbon stated 'how legitimate interest will access' while the current document used the term ' how third parties may access for legitimate activity'. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote. [The revised charter as approved is available at: It was agreed to send a communication to the GAC inviting those interested members in participating as individuals whose expertise would be valued rather than the official view of the particular department or government Bruce Tonkin proposed Philip Sheppard as the interim chair. The discussion emphasised the need for a skilled chair person to remain neutral for the 120 day period while the group was in place. Listening to the discussions, and the various points of view and identifying areas of rough consensus. Bruce Tonkin referred to the RFC2418 IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures - dated Sept 1998 as possible guidelines for such a group. Rita Rodin expressed hope that the working group would produce policy and resolve some of the WHOIS issues. Rita emphasised the facilitator role of the chair, aided by a co-chair, in eliciting ideas and moving towards a compromise. It was suggested that a facilitator or neutral party, such as an ex-board member or an external paid facilitator, could be a valuable support and sounding board for the chair in pointing out where neutrality could be compromised. It was suggested that Jon Bing, not on the call, Nominating Committee appointee to the Council, relatively new to the Council in a neutral role, could fulfil the role and be consulted by the chair. Bruce Tonkin, seconded by Avri Doria proposed that: 2 abstentions were noted from Philip Sheppard and Mawaki Chango Decision 3: The GNSO Council resolved to appoint Philip Sheppard as interim Chair of the Whois Working Group, that Philip would undertake to chair the group in a neutral manner and undertake to take input from others in determining what constitutes rough consensus of the Working Group. Item 6: Protection of IGO Names and Abbreviations in line with WIPO 2 - consider recommendation from the intellectual property constituency "The GNSO Council should request an Issues Report from ICANN staff to further explore the issues involved in introducing a separate dispute resolution procedure (DRP) specifically for addressing disputes involving IGO names and abbreviations. Based on this Issues Report, the GNSO Council may then consider launching a PDP on the topic. " see correspondence on this topic: http://www.icann.org/correspondence/twomey-to-tarmizi-13mar06.pdf http://www.icann.org/correspondence/tarmizi-to-twomey-15jun06.pdf Kristina Rosette commented on the background to the proposal. Thus, the scope of the IPC recommendation was to restrict it to the protection of IGO names and abbreviations.In summary there is definitely a basis in international law for the protection of IGO names and abbreviations tracing back to the Paris Convention. Currently,there are slightly over 132 IGO's that have followed the procedure for having their names and acronyms registered and consistent with the Paris convention. WIPO feels quite strongly that it is important to obtain the protection and to have an alternate procedure to allow IGO's to protect their names and marks particularly because of the nature of some of the IGO's, IGO Names and Abbreviations are not considered to be trademarks. Bruce Tonkin proposed tabling a motion for the next meeting and requesting feedback from the ICANN Staff in terms of resourcing a policy development process. Item 7: Ratify extension to Reserved Names Working Group statement of work http://www.gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03373.html The GNSO Council resolved, per the terms of the original Reserved Name Working Group (RN-WG) Statement of Work approved by the Council, The motion passed unanimously by voice vote. Decision 4: The GNSO Council resolved, per the terms of the original Reserved Name Working Group (RN-WG) Statement of Work approved by the Council, Draft Statement of Work for 30-Day Extension of RN-WG Original RN-WG Statement of Work will apply as applicable with the following added. General Tasks Tasks regarding Recommendations 1. ICANN/IANA reserved names Schedule The meeting ended: 14 :15 UTC Next GNSO Council meeting will be on 24 May 2007 at 12:00 UTC. Summary of Work Items arising from the minutes: 1. Arising from item 4, the GNSO Secretariat to launch the election process for GNSO Council chair. 2. Arising from item 5, revise the WHOIS working group charter to reflect the Council discussions. a. table the motion "The GNSO Council should request an Issues Report from ICANN staff to further explore the issues involved in introducing a separate dispute resolution procedure (DRP) specifically for addressing disputes involving IGO names and abbreviations. Based on this Issues Report, the GNSO Council may then consider launching a PDP on the topic. " |