Dear Councilors,

During the GNSO Council April 2025 Meeting, I informed you that Council Leadership and GNSO Support Staff were exploring alternative options for the Latin Script Diacritics (LD) PDP Outputs to be on a fast track process for the Applicant Guidebook (AGB). At that time, I also shared that the phased approach would be abandoned due to time limitations.

The agreement among Council Leadership, LD PDP WG Leadership, and ICANN org Staff is to complete the LD PDP as quickly as is reasonably possible, and then assess whether it is feasible to add on the LD PDP Outputs to the immediate Next Round; without having the recommendations completed, it is not possible to assess feasibility at this time. This approach implies that in addition to the ICANN org staff implementing the Next Round, the Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (SPIRT) would need to get involved; upon the SPIRT’s approval, the AGB could potentially be modified prior to opening of the immediate Next Round, accommodating the LD PDP policy recommendations operationally.

We believe that this approach sets more realistic expectations on both the LD PDP, the Next Round Team, and potential applicants, while putting the onus on the LD PDP to execute its work as expeditiously as possible.

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Many thanks,

Kind regards,

Prudence Malinki 

GNSO Council Liaison to the LD PDP WG

Head of Industry Relations, Markmonitor 

Skype: Malinkip 

T   +44 207 433 4869 

Time zone: GMT/BST