ICANN’s 2007 rejection of ICM Registry’s application for a .xxx top-level domain was “secretive, shifting, unpredictable, unfair, discriminatory, and in bad faith,” lawyers for the registry said Thursday in a 522-page filing with the International Center for Dispute Resolution. The complaint, the first under ICANN’s independent review process, alleges that the Internet body broke California and international laws along with its own bylaws and articles of incorporation when it bowed to pressure from the U.S. and other governments and reversed a 2005 board decision approving the controversial sponsored TLD (sTLD). ICANN said its decision was “more than amply supported by the facts.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a news release announcing the conclusion of the Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review for Taiwan. The USTR recognized Taiwan's progress on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights by removing Taiwan from the Special 301 Watch List. (USTR news release, dated 01/16/09, available at http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2009/January/asset_upload_file824_15293.pdf)

On January 20, 2009, President Obama's Chief of Staff issued a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies communicating President Obama's plan for managing the Federal regulatory process at the beginning of his Administration.

The Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a final rule, effective March 16, 2009, which continues the country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements of two interim final rules that retailers notify customers of the country of origin for the following agricultural goods (collectively, covered commodities):

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has announced that it is modifying the list of European Union products and countries subject to 100% duties in connection with the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement rulings in the EU beef hormone dispute. It is also raising the duty rate of one product to 300%.

Delaying the Feb. 17 DTV transition would be a “monumental error of judgment that would damage the program and hurt the public,” House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas said in a letter sent Wednesday to the Obama-Biden transition team. Fifteen committee Republicans signed the letter, which warned that “panicky talk of a delay is breeding stultifying uncertainty.” The letter reflects a growing sense of concern among committee Republicans that House leadership will push through legislation to delay the transition, and bypass what many members see as an easier fix: A bill to exempt the NTIA’s coupon program from accounting rules so the agency can resume mailing out discount vouchers for converter boxes.

Delaying the Feb. 17 DTV transition would be a “monumental error of judgment that would damage the program and hurt the public,” House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton of Texas said in a letter sent Wednesday to the Obama-Biden transition team. Also Wednesday, Commissioner Robert McDowell renewed his criticism of the FCC’s DTV transition planning, saying he and colleagues are kept out of the loop.

If foreign governments don’t like the U.S. government’s supervision of ICANN, they should consider leaving and starting a separate group at the ITU, the leader of a business group said Wednesday at the Congressional Internet Caucus’ State of the Net conference. Steve DelBianco, the executive director of the NetChoice Coalition, said businesses will be further marginalized in ICANN if foreign governments get their way and there is no extension of the joint project agreement between ICANN and the U.S. Commerce Department expiring in September. But Paul Levins, ICANN’s vice president of corporate affairs, said the body had always acted independently, even with formal U.S. oversight, and nothing would change if the agreement lapsed.

Congress is weighing legislation that would delay for 90 days the Feb. 17 DTV transition, but language is not final nor is it clear a delay has widespread support, House and Senate aides said Tuesday. The 90-day delay falls short of what Senate Commerce Committee Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., would prefer, but it’s where the consensus is forming, Rockefeller told reporters Tuesday. A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the 90-day delay proposal is “on the table.”

Online marketers said they're ready and willing to regulate themselves, just as consumer advocacy groups Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission not to follow with mobile marketers what they called its ineffectual approach to online marketers. A complaint by the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG said the FTC must act now to rein in mobile marketing before practices that should be labeled unfair and deceptive are so well entrenched they're impossible to stop. “The commission cannot continue to sit idly by and wait -- as it has done with the concerns over privacy raised by online advertising in the past,” the complaint said.