Dear all,

I wish to draw your attention to a correction in my report, in respect of Item 6. ICANN Grant Program - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency.

The correction and clarification are marked in strike-through and blue text below.

Apologies for any confusion caused.

Kind regards,

Justine Chew
ALAC Liaison to the GNSO 



On Tue, 26 Dec 2023 at 12:09, Justine Chew <justine.chew.icann@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,

Further to my verbal update at the ALAC's Dec Monthly Call on 19 Dec 2023, here is my follow up report on key items dealt with by the GNSO Council at its 21 Dec 2023 meeting.

I'm happy to take questions on the following.

Special Summary Report of 21 Dec 2023 Meeting to ALAC

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Dec 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Dec 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Consent Agenda

  • Sebastien Ducos is confirmed as Chair of the RDRS Standing Committee.

2. EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names (EPDP on IDNs)

  • Council has adopted the Phase 1 Final Report of the EPDP on IDNs containing 69 policy recommendations related to variant management at the top-level.

3. GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance (GGP on Applicant Support)

  • Council has adopted the Final Report of the GGP on Applicant Support containing 9 policy guidance recommendations related to certain aspects of the Applicant Support Program implementation for the next round of New gTLDs.

4. SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations

5. EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests

  • Council had been informed of the ICANN Board's concern over the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Recommendation 18 after ICANN org convened an IRT to discuss this upon Public Comment, and several commentors had expressed dissatisfaction with how Recommendation 18 was implemented.
    • Rec 18 reads, “A separate timeline of [less than X business days] will considered for the response to ‘Urgent’ Reasonable Disclosure Requests, those Requests for which evidence is supplied to show an immediate need for disclosure [time frame to be finalized and criteria set for Urgent requests during implementation].” 
    • It should be noted that GAC had also written to the ICANN Board in the context of urgent requests for registration data as the Board was reviewing the final plans for the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Launch.
  • Council heard that from a Board member that the Board thinks the RDRS was conceptually not fit for purpose in respect of urgent requests since there are no service levels associated with the RDRS, and therefore decided that functionality should be considered separately to the RDRS launch. Concerns were also indicated by registry and registrar groups especially since it is difficult to say with certainty the time needed to authenticate any requestor.
  • Council concluded the discussion by requesting a formal communication from the Board with respect to its concerns with the EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests to enable Council to determine what Council can do to help resolve the concern.

6. ICANN Grant Program - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency

  • On 22 Nov 2023, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) filed a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) of the ICANN Board Resolutions 2023.10.26.11 and 2023.10.26.122, regarding (i) the actions and inactions that led to (a) the ICANN Board’s public comment of 6 December 2018 on the Initial Report of the Cross-Community Working Group on New gTLD Auction Proceeds (CCWG-AP), (b) the organization of the public comment phase on the Proposed Final Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group, (c) the ICANN Board Resolutions 2022.06.12.13 to 2022.06.12.16 , and (ii) the actions and inactions involving the implementation of the ICANN Grant Giving Program.
  • After some discussion, Council felt is was appropriate to issue a letter of support for IPC's filed RfR general letter stating that there are issues worthy of consideration and encouraging the Board to consider a dialogue rather than resolving this issue on a legal technicality. The letter is expected to support the principle of dialogue and transparency when a policy recommendation may need to be changed. The letter may recognize, as in the IPC’s Request for Reconsideration (RfR), that there are issues that should be addressed, including the question of a broader fundamental Bylaws change.

7. Update on Diacritic Study Request

  • GNSO Council Leadership is reviewing a draft request prepared by Mark Datysgeld on the Diacritic Study and will report back to Council in due course.

Thanks for reading / considering.

Justine Chew
ALAC Liaison to the GNSO 


On Wed, 13 Dec 2023 at 14:09, Justine Chew <justine.chew.icann@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear all,

Just a note to inform you that the agenda for the GNSO Council meeting of 21 Dec 2023 at 13:00 UTC is out as follows.

For a curated version of the highlighted agenda item, please visit this link.

GNSO Council Meeting #12 of 2023 held on 21 Dec 2023 

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

  • Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
  • Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - EPDP on Internationalized Domain Names Phase 1 Final Report
  • Item 5: COUNCIL VOTE - GNSO Guidance Process (“GGP”) for Applicant Support Guidance Recommendation Final Report
  • Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro Small Team Update on Non-Adopted Recommendations 
  • Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - EPDP on Temporary Specification Phase 1 Urgent Requests
  • Item 8: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Request for Reconsideration from Intellectual Property Constituency 
  • Item 9: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update on Key Outcomes and Action Items Coming out of GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session
  • Item 10: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
    • 10.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaison updates
    • 10.2 Update on Diacritic Study Request

As usual, Council meetings are open to observers in listen-only mode. If you would like to observe the meeting, please check this link for details.

Thanks for reading / considering.

Justine Chew
ALAC Liaison to the GNSO