[council] TR: Update on Trademark clearinghouse from ICANN CEO

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Forwarded from David Olive
Objet : [policy] Update on Trademark clearinghouse from ICANN CEO


>From the ICANN blog at:   http://blog.icann.org


Concluding the Series of Trademark Clearinghouse Meetings

by Fadi Chehadé on December 13, 2012
Today I convened the final informational call to close off the series of
stakeholder meetings on implementing the Trademark Clearinghouse. I shared
the following updates:

1. Trademark Clearinghouse Agreements

a.  I am pleased to announce that we have signed an agreement with
Deloitte Enterprise Risk Services to be the first provider of validation
services for the Trademark Clearinghouse. As promised, we will be posting
that agreement shortly. The terms are in line with what I shared in my
last blog entry:

■ ICANN retains all intellectual property rights in the Trademark
Clearinghouse data. (Note this is as between ICANN and Deloitte. ICANN
claims no intellectual property rights with respect to user data.)

■ Deloitte’s validation services are to be non-exclusive.  ICANN may add
additional validators after a threshold of minimum stability is met.

■ Trademark submission fees are capped at USD 150 per record per year.
Discounts are available for bulk & multi-year submissions.

■ IBM will charge Deloitte for database access via an application
processing interface (API).

■ ICANN may audit Deloitte’s performance (and revenues/costs) to confirm
that the costs and fees for validation services are reasonable.

b.   I am also pleased to announce that we are making continued progress
on negotiations with IBM for the provision of database services.  This
contract is structured around a master agreement, with separate statements
of work to provide for the relevant services.   We are now working on the
first Statement of Work for the database, and expect to conclude this in
the next weeks.   We expect to negotiate and conclude the second Statement
of Work, covering the Sunrise and Trademark Claims services, in January.
Here are some highlights based on the current discussions:

■ IBM will maintain the Trademark Clearinghouse Database.

■ Data will be imported to the Database within three hours of receipt from
a Validator.

■ IBM will be available 24 x 7 for high severity incidents impacting the
operability of the database.

■ ICANN will receive all intellectual property rights necessary for
transition to a new database provider.

■ IBM will charge registries and registrars for real-time access to the
database during the sunrise and claims periods.  The fee structure remains
under consideration.

2.   The “Strawman Solution”
As noted in the last blog posting, the “strawman solution” developed
during the stakeholder meetings has been posted for public comment, and
also sent to the GNSO Council for their input.  I understand that this
request is on the Council’s agenda for its 20 December 2012 meeting.
I noted that the public comment notice has been updated to include the
full range of what, together with staff, I determined to be implementation
vs. policy. (This included some modifications from the original posting
which I entered last week.)
We will be awaiting the GNSO’s response, as well as considering and
analyzing the comments received on the strawman, to help us determine the
appropriate next steps.

3.  Additional Updates
I shared a few additional updates on today’s call.   On the Uniform Rapid
Suspension (URS) implementation, the good news is that we have received
multiple submissions in response to the RFI that are within the target
price range, and we will shortly be publishing an announcement on this.

As promised in Toronto, now that the Trademark Clearinghouse and URS are
well on the way to successful implementation, I will focus next on the RAA
negotiations.  Regrettably, we could not gather enough people to hold the
first discussion in December as intended, but we are scheduling this for
early in January.

Currently, I do not have plans to hold additional conference calls on this
matter, as we are now on a good path and the implementation team will
continue to work through the remaining milestones for getting the
Trademark Clearinghouse up and running.
I attempted with great care to maintain a delicate balance throughout this
effort.   I felt sandwiched between my deep respect (and growing
understanding) of the GNSO processes, and the need to resolve some
pressing matters that were standing in the way of a successful
implementation — an implementation that we would all stand and defend with
pride in the public eye.
While no collaborative process is perfect, I have done my best to ensure
that all voices have been heard and that we are working collectively to
arrive at a balanced outcome for the public benefit.   I learned a lot
from the process that will serve me well in the months and years ahead.
I would like to put on record my thanks to all those who engaged in these
issues with me in that spirit, and the tremendous effort and good will
that were demonstrated.   Now, let’s move forward together. We have much
to do as a community!
Sincerely,
Fadi





--
David A. Olive
Vice President, Policy Development Support
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
1101 New York Avenue, NW - Suite 930
Washington, D.C.    20005
Office: 202.570.7126      Mobile:  202.341.3611