I’m trying to gather that information now, Ron.

This Subcommittee (and others) have held irregular oversight hearings on ICANN, but there is no standard pattern to them. In the past there have been years between them.

My guess is that interests that are unhappy with the new gTLD program and/or current Applicant Guidebook may have encouraged this inquiry and that ICANN may face criticism on the IP protections, its relationships with the US and the GAC, the .xxx approval, and even the ongoing dispute regarding the .jobs registry charter and what it says (or doesn’t) about ICANN’s commitment to contractual compliance.

But again, that’s just a guess, and until I have more feedback and see the witness list I’ll leave it at that.

Last thought: While the Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over IP and competition matters, the Commerce Committee has direct oversight of the Department of Commerce and NTIA, including administration of the IANA contract. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see this inquiry spark one in the Commerce Committee, if only to reassert its jurisdictional “turf”.

Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal

Virtualaw LLC

1155 F Street, NW

Suite 1050

Washington, DC 20004

202-559-8597/Direct

202-559-8750/Fax

202-255-6172/cell

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

From: Ron Andruff [mailto:randruff@rnapartners.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 11:06 AM
To: Phil Corwin; bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] House Judiciary Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on gTLD Program

Thanks for this posting, Phil, but can you add some context to it? Is this one of a number of regular review sessions or is it something that is unique and we need to watch closely… or something else completely?

Thanks in advance for any further light you, or other members, can shed on this.

Kind regards,

Ronald N. Andruff

RNA Partners, Inc.

From: owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of Phil Corwin
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 9:31 AM
To: bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: [bc-gnso] House Judiciary Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on gTLD Program

FYI--

http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/hear_05022011.html

Hearing Information

Hearing on: "ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing"

Wednesday 5/4/2011 - 10:00 a.m.

2141 Rayburn House Office Building

Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet

By Direction of the Chairman

--As of yet, no witnesses listed --