Dear IFR2 Team,
I am writing to you in my role as the "Names Community" Co-Chair of the IANA Community Coordination Group (CCG). The CCG's role is to provide guidance and advice (and in certain instances, approvals) on behalf of the Names, Numbers, and Protocol Parameters Communities to the IETF Trust regarding the stewardship of the IANA Intellectual Property (IANA IP). The IETF Trust holds the IANA IP as part of an oversight and accountability mechanism put in place during the IANA Transition.
The CCG recently received a request (below) from the Chair of the IETF Trust seeking consent from the CCG relating to the IANA IP. Given the IFR2's key role in relation to IANA and PTI oversight, we wanted to regarding this request and to see if (a) the IFR2 has been informed of these plans by the IETF Trust, and (b) if the IFR2 has any questions and/or concerns regarding the IETF Trust's plans or the consent the CCG has been requested to give. Ultimately, I want to ensure that the IFR2 has no objections to the IETF Trust's plan, before the CCG decides whether to provide the requested consent.
From Glenn Deen, Chair of the IETF Trust:
As Chair of the IETF Trust I'm writing to you on behalf of the IETF Trust about the transfer of IANA Intellectual Property held and managed by the IETF Trust to the new not-for-profit Delaware based IETF Intellectual Property Management Corporation (IPMC) that the current IETF Trust a Virginia based Common Trust entity is restructuring into.
This IETF Trust restructuring has been underway for some time now and is nearing its end. We are now undertaking the final steps, which largely involve the actual transfer of the Intellectual Property and IP rights held by the IETF Trust.
For anyone not familiar with this restructuring work, the IETF Trust's role remains the same, as does the appointment processes for the 5 IETF Trustees (3 from IETF noncom, 1 from IETF IESG and 1 from ISOC Board of Trustees). The IETF Trustees will now be Directors of the new corporation.
What has changed is all legal under the covers, with the IETF Trust legally changing from a Virginia Common Trust to a Delaware not-for-profit corporation which like the Virginia entity has been recognized by the IRS as a not-profit 501c3. If you're interested in the details , the new Legal Documents [1] and the Community Consultation [2] are all available on the IETF Trust website (https://trustee.ietf.org)
The IETF Trust provides service beyond the IETF community by holding IANA related Intellectual Property assigned to it as part of the 2016 IANA restructuring. See Exhibits A & B in the IANA Assignment Agreement [3] for the full asset list of IANA IP consisting of Trademarks and Domain Names. Under the agreement, the IETF Trust holds the IANA TMs, maintaining registrations and taking appropriate actions as needed to protect the TMs. The IETF Trustees also provide change approval for the transferred DNS Domains whereby approval by any 3 of the 5 Trustees is required for any technical changes to the domains.
During a review of reassignment of agreements the IETF Trust with different parties, we recently came across a requirement in the 2016 IANA agreements [3][4] around the IANA Intellectual Property held by the IETF Trust that requires that we consult and get approval from the CCG for the Transfer of the IANA IP assets.