RE: [council] Reconfiguring the URS?

["Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Stephane,

Without getting into the debate about whether staff intentional hid this in the 
budget process, and I am not alleging that at all, I think we could all agree 
that for a subject like this - the notion of changing the URS - should have 
been a little bit more front and center and probably best would have been 
better to disclose in a separate announcement as opposed to within a note in 
the budget.  I admit that I did not catch it during my first reading.  It took 
an article Phil Corwin drafted for me to notice it.

Lets discuss this during the GNSO Council call and I believe the letter is a 
good idea.

Best regards,

Jeffrey J. Neuman
Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs


From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Stéphane Van Gelder
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 8:48 AM
To: GNSO Council List
Subject: Re: [council] Reconfiguring the URS?

Thanks all, great discussion.

My personal view is aligned with those expressed here: it's a no-brainer that 
the GNSO should be involved in any project undertaken to rework the URS.

Putting my Chair hat back on, should the Council express the desire to make 
that point officially, I can suggest that I be tasked with writing to the Board 
to request that we be involved.

I will add this to the AoB on our agenda for next week as well.

Stéphane

P.S.: Thomas, I do not agree with your apparent allegations that there was an 
attempt to "hide" this in the budget process. I think that is an unfair 
characterization of Staff's work there. The budget drafting process is 
extremely well-publicised by ICANN Staff, who even go to the trouble of 
organization several webinar sessions to introduce the draft. In that regard, 
the URS info is clearly in the draft and there for all to see. So I would urge 
that we do not systematically adopt paranoid reactions to what Staff does, as 
this does not help our aim of working hand-in-hand with them.

Le 3 mai 2012 à 21:45, <Mary.Wong@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Mary.Wong@xxxxxxxxxxx>> 
<Mary.Wong@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Mary.Wong@xxxxxxxxxxx>> a écrit :


My understanding is that ICANN has been told by likely providers that $300-500 
is an unrealistic number given the various steps and time lines involved in the 
current URS process. To me, this means that arriving at a realistic cost 
(whatever that turns out to be) will necessarily involve examining and likely 
changing the URS itself.

Since the URS was developed by the GNSO (through the STI refining the original 
proposal from the IRT) it seems to me essential that the GNSO be involved in 
any further change, refinement and discussion of it (whether at summits or 
ICANN meetings or through WGs).

Cheers
Mary

Mary W S Wong
Professor of Law
Chair, Graduate IP Programs
Director, Franklin Pierce Center for IP
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SCHOOL OF LAW
Two White Street
Concord, NH 03301
USA
Email: mary.wong@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:mary.wong@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Phone: 1-603-513-5143
Webpage: http://www.law.unh.edu/marywong/index.php
Selected writings available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) at: 
http://ssrn.com/author=437584
>>>
From:

Thomas Rickert <rickert@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:rickert@xxxxxxxxxxx>>

To:

"Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx>>

CC:

"council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>" 
<council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>

Date:

5/3/2012 3:31 PM

Subject:

Re: [council] Reconfiguring the URS?

Jeff, all,
this should definitely be a matter for the GNSO to work on.
I agree with you, Wendy and Alan.

This should go on the agenda for our next meeting in my view.

May I ask that the Council gets more background information on this? If I 
remember correctly, the original figure of 300 USD per case was already 
increased to 300-500 USD in one of the presentations in CR (I guess Kurt 
presented it that way) and it would be interesting to see whether even that 
figure was not sufficient to cover the costs.

I would also like to ask why such important information is "hidden" in the 
budget document. The information that the URS cannot be implemented as planned 
is something that needs to be treated carefully. The URS was presented as one 
approach to address the shortcomings of the UDRP for the new namespaces. In my 
view any changes to the URS as laid down in the AGB - if any - need to be 
carefully balanced in order to avoid an uproar.

I know that a lot of trademark owners have been more than hesitant to provide 
ICANN with sensitive information during their TLD applications. The TAS glitch 
did not particularly help to build trust.
Changes to the URS should therefore include the community to avoid further 
erosion of confidence in ICANN.

Thanks,
Thomas






Am 03.05.2012 um 20:09 schrieb Neuman, Jeff:


All,
Thanks to Phil Corwin for catching this, but buried in the new budget document 
(http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/op-budget-fy13-01may12-en.htm) 
just put out for comment is a note on "reconfiguring" the URS.  Excerpt 
provided below.   I guess they could not find any URS providers that could do 
it for the costs that they had projected, so ICANN is holding 2 summits to work 
on a new model.  My question for the Council, is whether this is really a 
policy issue that should be referred back to the GNSO Community as opposed to 
having  ICANN on its own resolving after holding 2 summits.  Given the 
controversy around this over the past few years, any tweaks to the URS should 
probably go back to the community in my opinion.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) - $175K
At present there is a significant gap between the features specified for the 
URS procedure and the desired cost. In order to bridge this gap we will: hold 
two summit sessions to reconfigure the URS to arrive at a lower cost model (one 
session in FY12 budget and another in this FY13 plan), conduct a process to 
develop and finalize URS Model in consultation with current UDRP providers and 
community members; and conduct RFP based on URS Model and select URS providers. 
The goal is have a URS program in place and providers contracted and onboard by 
June 2013.
Jeffrey J. Neuman
Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs
21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / 
jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx>  / 
www.neustar.biz<http://www.neustar.biz/>