March 2009: The Board met at the conclusion of the Mexico ICANN meeting, http://mex.icann.org/node/2689 http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-06mar09.htm At that meeting, the Board approved the global policy proposal for the allocation of the remaining IPv4 address space, chartered the IPC to convene an implementation recommendation team on IP protection in new gTLDs, and approved new Board Committees. The Board congratulated participants for a successful At-Large Summit. They opened several comment periods, including on Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the Ombudsman Framework, and noted that comment is ongoing on constituency charter renewals and new constituency proposals. The IPC's IRT has occasioned much discussion. It's important to note that that group is asked to "propose solutions to the overarching issue of trademark protection in connection with the introduction of new gTLDs." Those proposals must still be evaluated by the community, including At-Large, and then reviewed by the Board. The group is directed to "(i) distribute its draft report by 24 April 2009 to interested members of the community for comment, and (ii) produce a final report to be published no later than 24 May 2009 for consideration by the ICANN community at the Sydney meeting." More important than putting a member or two onto the IRT, it will be critical for the At-Large to analyze the recommendations that group makes and provide clear input to the Board whether the resulting recommendations are in community interest. <http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-06mar09.htm#07> Discussions continue on GNSO restructuring, IDN-ccTLD fast-track, protection of geographic terms, and individual users in the GNSO. --Wendy -- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Professor, American University Washington College of Law Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/ https://www.torproject.org/