Open letter to ICANN from the Legal Counsels of intergovernmental organizations

[William Drake]

Hi

As expected, the UN and other public intergovernmental organizations are now demanding that their names and acronyms be protected---not only at the top, but the second level as well—"Consistent with the rationale for protection envisaged for the important causes represented by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Olympic Committee."  The door has been opened, why wouldn't they want to go through it?   

The letter is attached below.  Kieren has an article on this at http://news.dot-nxt.com/2011/12/14/igos-special-gtld-exemption.  While I agree with him that there is no chance of a TLD application with an international organization's name or acronym making it through the application process anyway, that the second level demand is problematic, and that the guidebook mechanisms would seem sufficient, it's not obvious that ICANN can easily tell these organizations to just chill out and expect them to go away.

On last Thursday's Council call Wolfgang and I raised questions about how GNSO & ICANN would deal with this.  There's a GNSO group being formed to work on the RC & IOC, but apparently no consideration of expanding its remit at this time.  Clearly, there will have to be a broader discussion about the relative merits of transforming the Reserved Names list into a broad "rights protection" mechanism. GAC has argued that reserving RC & IOC are required by ICANN's public interest mandate; presumably we'll be hearing the same here.  The intersection of the DNS and state-related claims raises a host of issues which NC may wish to consider and weigh in on.

Best,

Bill

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Stéphane Van Gelder <stephane.vangelder at indom.com>
> Date: December 18, 2011 12:49:08 PM GMT+01:00
> To: GNSO Council <council at gnso.icann.org>
> Subject: [council] Fwd: Open letter to ICANN from the Legal Counsels of intergovernmental organisations (IGO's)
> 
> Councillors,
> 
> In the context of our own discussions at the end of last week's meeting, please see below the message I was copied on last Friday.
> 
> Stéphane
> 
> 
> 
> Début du message réexpédié :
> 
>> De : <Nicola.BONUCCI at oecd.org>
>> Objet : Open letter to ICANN from the Legal Counsels of intergovernmental organisations (IGO's)
>> Date : 16 décembre 2011 18:00:27 HNEC
>> À : <rod.beckstrom at icann.org>, <steve at shinkuro.com>, <kurt.pritz at icann.org>
>> Cc : <gac at gac.icann.org>, <heather.dryden at ic.gc.ca>, <jeffrey at icann.org>, <amy.stathos at icann.org>, <Josee.FECTEAU at oecd.org>, <Alexandra.EXCOFFIER-NOSOV at oecd.org>, <Jill.SCHUKER at oecd.org>, <edward.kwakwa at wipo.int>, <bdelachapelle at gmail.com>, <stephane.vangelder at indom.com>, <ocl at gih.com>, <DL1516 at oecd.org>
>> 
>> Dear Sirs,
>>  
>> Several additional International Organizations have signed on to the open letter transmitted to you on 13 December.  You will find enclosed the same letter containing an updated list of signatories.
>>  
>> We take this opportunity to also copy the letter to the GNSO President Stephane Van Gelder and the ALAC Chair Olivier Crepin-Leblond.
>>  
>> Sincerely yours,
>>  
>>  
> 
>> Nicola Bonucci
>> Director & Accession Coordinator / Directeur et coordonnateur de l’adhésion
>> Directorate for Legal Affairs / Direction des affaires juridiques
>>  
>> 2, rue André Pascal - 75775 Paris Cedex 16 
>> Tel: +33 1 45 24 80 77 – Fax: +33 1 44 30 62 45
>> nicola.bonucci at oecd.org  || www.oecd.org
>>  
>> Follow us on:
> 
>>  
> 
>>   
> 
>>   
> 
>>  
> 
> 

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