29 May 2009
The Implementation
Recommendation Team (IRT) posted its Final
Report on Trademark Protection in New gTLDs [PDF,
300K].
The IRT (Members
of the IRT are listed here [PDF, 88K]) was formed by ICANN's Intellectual
Property Constituency in accordance with the 6 March, 2009 ICANN Board
resolution (http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-06mar09.htm).
The resolution was in response to the request by the community seeking solutions
for potential issues for trademark holders in the implementation of new gTLDs.
The team reflects experiential and geographic diversity and is comprised of 18
members and two alternates.
The IRT team participated in
numerous teleconferences and several face-to-face meetings in Washington, D.C.
and San Francisco, California, over a two month period. The resulting
recommendations report on Trademark Protection Issues identifies several
proposed solutions, including:
In the process of developing
its recommendations, the IRT consulted with WIPO and the broader community, and
evaluated the public comments received in response to the posting of the Draft
IRT Report [PDF, 431K] on 24 April, 2009. These comments are posted at http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-draft-report/.
In addition, several community members who had submitted substantive comments
and proposals on trademark protection in new TLDs were invited to participate in
the IRT meeting held on 11 May, 2009 in San Francisco.
This Final IRT Report will be
posted for a thirty
(30) day comment period that closes on 29 June, 2009. Comments can be sent
to irt-final-report@icann.org
and reviewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/irt-final-report.
The community will have
additional opportunity to discuss the IRT proposal in an open forum discussion
at the Sydney Meeting and in public consultations to be scheduled in July and
August 2009. These consultations will take place in diverse geographic regions,
and will provide a forum for ICANN to hear from the community on the
effectiveness of proposals that address the overarching issues submitted by the
IRT and others.
For additional
information:
WIKI for Overarching Issues
discussions: https://st.icann.org/new-gtld-overarching-issues/index.cgi?new_gtld_overarching_issues.
New gTLD
Page: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm.