ICANN Work on Key Applicant Guidebook May Continue After Board Approves New Generic Top-Level Domains
Crucial work on a guidebook for applicants for new generic top-level domains may continue after ICANN’s board approves, at its Singapore meeting the week of June 20, making them available, a lawyer following the action said Tuesday. The top-level domain is the part of a Web address after the last dot, and making available new names including for brands and communities is on the table, said speakers on a BNA webcast. Canon, Hitachi and Nokia have announced plans to seek “dot-brand” domains, “and some others are going to be forthcoming in the next few weeks,” said Jeffrey Neuman, NeuStar vice president-law and policy.
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It’s “simply inevitable” that cybersquatting will increase in absolute terms with a move to as many as 500 generic top-level domains from the current 21, said Kristina Rosette of Covington & Burling. Not everyone predicts a rise, but the “vast majority of trademark owners” do, she said. There are several open questions about the applicability of the Lanham Trademark Act and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act that probably will be litigated, she said.
This month’s board meeting will be the last for Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush, and everyone in the organization knows that the expansion will be considered an important part of his legacy, Rosette said. Besides, ICANN has scheduled a party during the meeting to celebrate the approval and has booked the location, said Scott Evans, Yahoo’s senior legal director for global brand and trademark: “Unless there’s a monsoon on the 19th or 20th, it’s pretty certain."
But the applicant guide may be “tweaked” during a planned four-month implementation period after the meeting “until the GAC is happy,” Rosette said, referring to the Governmental Advisory Committee. The guidebook already has been in the works three years, said seminar moderator Mary Wong, director of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at the University of New Hampshire. The latest version was released last week, Neuman said. The earliest that new domains could launch is Q4 of 2012, but the next quarter is more likely, Neuman said.
The advisory committee has raised several issues, including regarding trademark protection, but how concerns it raises to the board are handled “may well be the ultimate sticking point,” Rosette said. The activity reflects how the involvement of the committee -- the vehicle for national governments to participate in ICANN -- is “starting to shift” significantly from its previous low-key role, “really starting in December at the Cartagena meeting” of the corporation in Colombia and reflecting the committee’s “greater role under the affirmation of commitments” most recently signed by ICANN and the U.S. Commerce Department, Rosette said.