Dear RPM IRT, 

As mentioned, ICANN staff has been working on preparing the materials required for publication of the updated RPM procedural documents. We are currently aiming to publish the announcement, educational materials, and revised procedural documents on 28 February subject to ICANN’s internal publication schedule availability. 

These changes will impact contracted parties as well as RPM service providers. Current practice is to allow a window of at least six months for contracted parties to update their operations to ensure compliance with new policies. With this approach,  the implementation timeline for contracted parties to implement the relevant changes specified in the RPM procedural documents would be 6 months, meaning these changes should be in place by 31 August. If helpful, the key changes that contracted parties are required to implement to become compliant with the updated procedures are outlined below.

Registrars will be required to comply with the following changes to the revised URS Procedure and TMCH Requirements:

• URS Procedure, Paragraph 4.2 was updated with new text to clarify that after the Administrative Review is completed, the URS Provider must request the language of the registration agreement from the Registrar. The Registrar is required to provide this information to the URS Provider within one (1) business day. If the Registrar's business day includes weekends, holidays, or other office closures, the response time must not exceed three (3) calendar days. 

• TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.2 has been updated to specify that Registrars that have accepted the Terms of Service must follow the Functional Specifications for implementing the Claims Services as outlined in RFC9361 and its update. If the update is not yet an RFC, the latest draft must be followed. Once the update is published as an RFC, it must be implemented. 
• TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.3 has been added to state that Registrars must provide the Registry Operator with the datetime when a potential domain registrant confirmed their intent to proceed with registration after receiving the Claims Notice. This datetime must occur within 168 hours before the domain's Effective Allocation, except in the following cases: 
  • TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.3.1 (New Section) For asynchronous domain registrations based on applications (e.g., auctions), the registrar may provide an acceptance datetime from up to 168 hours before the creation of the intermediate domain object (e.g., domain name application). 
  • TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.3.2 (New Section) For asynchronous registrations not based on applications (e.g., pre-registration), the registrar may provide an acceptance datetime older than 168 hours, but only if the registrar has confirmed that the Claims Notice Information has remained unchanged within 168 hours of the domain's Effective Allocation.
• The Trademark Claims Notice Template for Registrars (to be shared in materials circulated to Registrars preparing for New gTLD launches) in Exhibit A of the TMCH Requirements has also been updated to reflect more specific information about the trademark(s) for which it is being issued, and to more effectively communicate the meaning and implications of the Claims Notice (e.g., outlining possible legal consequences or describing what actions potential registrants may be able to take, following receipt of a notice).

Registries will be required to comply with the following changes to the revised TMCH Requirements:

• TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.1 has been updated to specify that the Registry Operator must implement the Claims Service according to the Functional  Specifications outlined in RFC9361 and its update (either as an RFC or the latest draft if not yet finalized). Once the updated specification is officially published as an RFC, it must be implemented. 
• TMCH Requirements, Section 3.4.4 has been added to specify that when generating a Claims Notice, the expiration date must be set 12 months into the future by the TMDB. Registry Operators must verify that the acceptance datetime is within the 12-month window defined by ICANN policy, ensuring it is no more than 12 months old, as the Claims Notice must be unexpired.

Please let us know if you have any feedback on this timeline. We will also be contacting URS and TM-PDDRP Providers, as well as the Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) and Registrars Stakeholder Group (RrSG), to provide advance notice before publication.

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

Thank you!

Best,

Antonietta & Karen