Latest news of the domain name industry

Recent Posts

GAC gives ICANN final warning on new TLDs

Kevin Murphy, June 19, 2011, 01:30:34 (UTC), Domain Policy

As ICANN’s 41st meeting begins in Singapore, the Governmental Advisory Committee is sticking to its guns on a number of its outstanding demands on new top-level domains.
GAC chair Heather Dryden said in a Saturday letter to the ICANN board (pdf) that its concerns relating to controversial string objections, trademark protection, and vertical integration have not been satisfactorily addressed.
She also said that the Applicant Guidebook should be amended to protect the trademarks of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Olympics movements, and that developing countries should get support.

The GAC would advise the Board that these issues involve important public policy objectives and, until resolved, also risk gTLD applications being made that conflict with applicable law.

To this end, and notwithstanding the GAC’s wish to avoid any further delay in the new gTLD process, the GAC would advise the Board to ensure that all remaining public policy concerns are properly addressed and adequately respected before the new gTLD application procedure is finalised.

The GAC and board will meet this afternoon in Singapore to discuss these remaining issues.
The ICANN board is due to meet tomorrow morning to consider approving the Applicant Guidebook and the new gTLD program.

Tagged: , , ,

Comments (5)

  1. […] As Kevin Murphy chatted about on Domainincite.com today, a letter sent by the chair of the Government Advisory Council (GAC) Heather Dryden who happens to be the representative from Canada, to the ICANN board makes it clear that the GAC still has major issues with ICANN over the new gTLD program. […]

  2. […] As Kevin Murphy chatted about on Domainincite.com today, a letter sent by the chair of the Government Advisory Council (GAC) Heather Dryden who happens to be the representative from Canada, to the ICANN board makes it clear that the GAC still has major issues with ICANN over the new gTLD program. […]

  3. My guess: ICANN is going to launch new gTLDs tomorrow! Florian

  4. Stop ICANN says:

    com.sports
    sports.com
    mess.icann
    icann.mess
    http://www.stopicann.com
    com.www.stopicann
    stopicann.www.com
    stopicann.com.www
    You get the picture.

  5. ICANN'T Believe It says:

    ICANN, and I-cann-love-money apologists are failing to understand the meaning of the word TOP.
    Commercial (.com) IS A TOP group/category.
    Network (.net) IS A *TOP* group/category.
    And so on.
    .coke .ibm .canon etc. ARE NOT TOP CATEGORIES.
    They all belong-to “commercial”.
    They are all sub-categories of “commercial.”
    ICANN and money-lovers are trying to redefine the meaning of the word “TOP” and the general public is allowing this. It’s a money-grab and ICANN keeps a generous portion of the $185k FOR EACH APPROVED APPLICATION (i.e. * 1000).
    IT’S GOING TO BE A MESS.
    STOP ICANN.

Add Your Comment