Digital Discourse / Archives for gTLDs

More Trademark and Copyright Protections are Needed before New Domain Names Go Live on the Internet

September 27, 2012 By

SIIA today called for more Intellectual Property safeguards before any new generic top level domain (gTLD) applications are approved. SIIA filed comments with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) on the new gTLD applications as part of the public comment and objection process.

Under the current program, trademark and copyright owners will be forced to expend significant resources and time to protect their intellectual property on thousands of new domains. It is essential that the registries (the gTLD applicants) that are approved by ICANN put in place greater safeguards to protect against piracy and counterfeiting. This is especially true for domain names that are targeted toward software and information products and brands.

SIIA and other concerned groups have recommended a minimum set of safeguards that all new gTLDs should be required to abide by. Among other things, these safeguards would require registries to offer publicly accessible, authenticated, verified Whois data for all second-level domain names within the registry. All registries must implement standards that ensure prompt investigation and resolution of rights holder complaints.

A clear process for complaints and systems for ensuring that domain information is accurate and publically available are the minimum levels of protection that rights holders deserve under this new program. Without this, the new domains will create huge potential for abuse by those seeking to profit from the name, reputation, and content of others. Trademark and copyright owners need a reasonable and open complaint process to turn to.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

ICANN Update: Changes to the gTLD Evaluation Process, Comment Deadline is Extended, and More

August 29, 2012 By

SIIA has been tracking the details of how new generic top level domains (gTLDs) will operate under ICANN’s new program to expand the number of gTLDs, with an eye toward intellectual property rights protection mechanisms, Whois database implementation, and other considerations. There have been many new developments since ICANN announced the 1,930 applications for new top level domains. Here’s the latest:

Changes to the gTLD Evaluation Process
ICANN’s original plan to “batch” applications into groups of 500 for prioritizing evaluation is dead. All 1930 applications will be part of a single, initial evaluation for technical and financial capability, with all results announced at the end of that process. In lieu of batching, ICANN apparently will use some “metering” process for handling the applications, but at this time we are not clear on what such a metering process would entail.

Comments on new gTLD applications extended
The deadline for submitting comments on the new gTLDs to the ICANN evaluation panels was postponed by ICANN until September 26th. SIIA will be filing comments on many of the applied-for strings at that time.

ICANN Names New CEO
New ICANN CEO, Fadi Chehade, will take office in October (until then, current COO Akram Attalah will be CEO).

Cost of Take Down Process Examined
ICANN announced that it would convene a group to seek possible alternatives to the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), in light of the providers’ (WIPO, ICC and ICDR) statements that they cannot do it for $300 per complaint as promised in the Guidebook. The URS is intended to be a cheap, quick take down process for brand owners to file a claim against a domain and have it taken down (much like WIPO’s existing UDRP). In response, several gTLD applicants stated that they would implement their own URS if ICANN failed to provide one by the time they were ready to launch. Others applicants suggested that ICANN should fund any difference in cost out of the $350 million in gTLD application fees it recently collected.

Timing of new gTLDs
Due to several delays and complications, the new gTLD evaluation and comment/objection process will extend well into 2013, and likely 2014 for some contested applications. As a result, new gTLDs will likely not go “live” until at least mid to late 2013. (Some reasons for the delay include: the GAC has informed the ICANN Board that it will not be ready to issue “Consensus Advice” on any applications until April 2013 – thus presumably no applications will be formally approved before then. Also, as mentioned above, ICANN’s announcement of anticipated cost overruns of the URS trademark enforcement tool, as well as the Trademark Clearinghouse, prompted some members of the ICANN community, notably the registries and registrars, to call for alternatives or, in the case of the Trademark Clearinghouse, ability to participate in technical development. New gTLDs cannot launch until these issues are resolved.).

ICANN Awarded IANA Contract
On July 2, the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions Contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This is not a new role for ICANN, which manages the current IANA Functions Contract that is set to expire on September 30, 2012. The contract will run from October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2015, and has two 2-year option periods, for a total contract period of seven years.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

SIIA Calls for Increased IP Protections from ICANN as New gTLD Applications are Announced

June 13, 2012 By

SIIA is reviewing 1,930 new generic top level domain (gTLD) applications—unveiled today by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN )—in order to identify potential intellectual property threats as part of the public comment and objection process. SIIA believes that ICANN must do more to ensure that proper safeguards are in place to protect intellectual property rights before any new gTLDs are approved and go live on the Internet.

SIIA supports, respects and has participated in the ICANN multi-stakeholder process, and a number of our members are new gTLD applicants themselves. Now that the scope and content of applications are known, ICANN will have another opportunity to address intellectual property concerns, and must do so. The rights protection mechanisms that ICANN has required gTLD applicants to implement are inadequate. While some gTLD applicants are voluntarily providing more protection than ICANN requires, this is not the case with all applicants.

SIIA and other concerned groups have promulgated “Enhanced Safeguards for New gTLDS Targeting Creative Sectors”—or gTLDs that pose a particular threat to become havens for infringement and related criminal and illegal activity. SIIA will evaluate and publicly comment on how applications stack up against these standards—especially whether the registry (the gTLD applicant) has committed to offer publicly accessible, authenticated, verified Whois data for all second-level domain names within the registry, and to implement standards that ensure prompt investigation and resolution of rights holder complaints.

The ICANN gTLD program, as currently formulated, represents a significant challenge to trademark and copyright owners,” continued Bain. “ICANN’s program may open up new opportunities, but it also presents a whole new frontier of potential—and likely—abuse by those seeking to profit from the name, reputation, and content of others. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time to protect themselves against cybersquatters and infringers.

Scott BainScott Bain is Chief Litigation Counsel & Director, Internet Anti-piracy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: , ,

ICANN Extends gTLD Application Deadline; All Eyes Are on April 30 Publishing Date

April 12, 2012 By

ICANN extended its deadline for new generic top level domain (gTLD) applications from today until next Friday, but as POLITICO points out in today’s Morning Tech, everyone is waiting for April 30. That’s the date ICANN intends to publish the gTLDs applied for.

There are indications that several thousand applications have been submitted, and SIIA will be reviewing and analyzing the list, and notifying its members of potential applications they may want to object to.

Morning Tech quoted SIIA in its write-up about the new system and how it can change the foundations of the Internet:

‘We’re going to go from a world of .com, .org and.gov to a situation where we’ll have hundreds or thousands of new strings,’ said Scott Bain. ‘It will force a change in how people think of domain names and how they get to sites. Search engines will be more important for finding the right domain – is it nike.com or nike.sports.”

Among other actions, SIIA will be also providing advice to the U.S. government (NTIA) to assist it in the process by which ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee will issue “early warnings” to certain applicants.

Scott BainScott Bain is Chief Litigation Counsel & Director, Internet Anti-piracy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

As Application Period Begins Today, ICANN gTLD Program Represents Significant Challenge to Trademark & Copyright Owners

January 12, 2012 By

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) today began accepting applications for new generic top level domains (gTLDs) to the Internet, part of a proposal the ICANN Board adopted in June 2011. 

SIIA supports, respects, and has participated in the ICANN multi-stakeholder process, and acknowledges that new gTLDs will be introduced. But once the scope and content of applications becomes apparent, ICANN will have another opportunity to address stakeholder concerns, and must do so. The introduction of new gTLDs will require even more of ICANN’s focus on previously-neglected, critical tasks such as reform of the Whois system, improvement of registrar contracts, and contract compliance and enforcement.

The highly controversial proposal has been years in the making, and potentially opens up the Internet to hundreds if not thousands of new gTLDs (and second-level registrations within each of them). The application period will run from January to April, and applications are expected to be publicized in May. It is anticipated that new gTLDs will be approved (and begin appearing on the Internet) sometime in 2013. 

The new gTLD program, as currently formulated, represents a significant challenge to trademark and copyright owners. ICANN’s program opens up a whole new frontier of potential –and likely—abuse by those seeking to profit from the name, reputation, and content of others. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time in enforcing their rights against cybersquatters and infringers.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

Deluge of Privacy and Security Bills in Washington, Plus ICANN

June 21, 2011 By

In case you thought there was already too many privacy and data security bills in the U.S. Congress, several more were introduced last week. Notably, Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the “Location Privacy Protection Act,” Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced their “Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act,” and on the data security front, Commerce Chairman Rockefeller (D-WV) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) introduced the “Data Security Breach Notification Act.”

At the same time, one of the bills receiving the most attention hasn’t yet been formally introduced.  That is, Mary Bono Mack’s draft “SAFE Data Act” was the subject of a Subcommittee legislative hearing last week, and the Chairwoman has made clear her intentions to move forward to markup the legislation in the near future.

SIIA is currently assessing the long list of proposals, and the outlook in Congress for the remainder of 2011.  Even more now, there is considerable jurisdictional wrangling among the key Committees of jurisdiction on these issues, which could lead to more smoke than fire for the remainder of 2011.  Regardless of how this plays out, SIIA will continue to work with members and policymakers as they explore the need for new laws and regulations regarding the collection and protection of personal information.

On the patent reform front, as reported last week, it’s still expected that the legislation will be voted on by the House this week.  As of Tuesday a.m., House leadership was reportedly hammering-out some of the remaining key details regarding the controversial issue of PTO fee retention and future funding.  That vote is expected to occur later this week. Stay tuned.

As expected, yesterday the Board of Directors of ICANN approved a proposal to add hundreds and possibly thousands of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) to the Internet. The proposal has been years in the making, and the 400-page Draft Applicant Guidebook that describes it has undergone seven major revisions. SIIA believes that the decision to approve the Guidebook represents a significant threat to copyright owners. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time in enforcing their rights against cybersquatters and infringers.

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Filed Under: Digital Policy Roundup, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

ICANN Guidebook Vote a Challenge to Trademark and Copyright Owners

June 20, 2011 By

The Board of Directors of ICANN today approved a proposal to add hundreds and possibly thousands of new generic top level domains (gTLDs) to the Internet. The proposal has been years in the making, and the 400-page Draft Applicant Guidebook that describes it has undergone seven major revisions. SIIA believes that the decision to approve the Guidebook represents a significant threat to copyright owners.

The new gTLD program, as currently formulated, represents a significant challenge to trademark and copyright owners. While SIIA favored a targeted approach to address specific gTLD needs, such as non-latin script gTLDs, ICANN’s approved program is extremely broad. Intellectual property owners will need to familiarize themselves quickly with the Rights Protection Mechanisms in the gTLD Applicant Guidebook, and expend even more resources and time in enforcing their rights against cybersquatters and infringers.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Copyright, Policy, Software Tagged With: , ,
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