Open letter to ICANN from the Legal Counsels of intergovernmental organizations

[Wendy Seltzer]

I took the opportunity to remind Council that we've seen these issues
before (and punted them then, as we should do again).

> I note that the GNSO had an Issues Report on the protection of IGO names
> at the second level in 2007.  At that time, Council did not start a PDP
> on dispute-resolution process for IGO names.
> 
> <http://gnso.icann.org/issues/igo-names/issues-report-igo-drp-15jun07.pdf>
> <http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-20dec07.html>
> 
> I'll also note, as I have before, that many of the acronyms of IGOs are
> short and in common, non-confusing usage as words and abbreviations for
> many other purposes.  I don't think there's a basis for blocking them at
> the second level.  WHO knows, even you might be using some. WB soon!
> 
> --Wendy
> 


On 12/19/2011 01:22 AM, William Drake wrote:
> 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 
>> <mailto:stephane.vangelder at indom.com>>
>> *Date: *December 18, 2011 12:49:08 PM GMT+01:00
>> *To: *GNSO Council <council at gnso.icann.org <mailto: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 <mailto: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 <mailto:rod.beckstrom at icann.org>>, 
>>> <steve at shinkuro.com <mailto:steve at shinkuro.com>>, <kurt.pritz at icann.org 
>>> <mailto:kurt.pritz at icann.org>>
>>> *Cc : *<gac at gac.icann.org <mailto:gac at gac.icann.org>>, 
>>> <heather.dryden at ic.gc.ca <mailto:heather.dryden at ic.gc.ca>>, 
>>> <jeffrey at icann.org <mailto:jeffrey at icann.org>>, <amy.stathos at icann.org 
>>> <mailto:amy.stathos at icann.org>>, <Josee.FECTEAU at oecd.org 
>>> <mailto:Josee.FECTEAU at oecd.org>>, <Alexandra.EXCOFFIER-NOSOV at oecd.org 
>>> <mailto:Alexandra.EXCOFFIER-NOSOV at oecd.org>>, <Jill.SCHUKER at oecd.org 
>>> <mailto:Jill.SCHUKER at oecd.org>>, <edward.kwakwa at wipo.int 
>>> <mailto:edward.kwakwa at wipo.int>>, <bdelachapelle at gmail.com 
>>> <mailto:bdelachapelle at gmail.com>>, <stephane.vangelder at indom.com 
>>> <mailto:stephane.vangelder at indom.com>>, <ocl at gih.com <mailto:ocl at gih.com>>, 
>>> <DL1516 at oecd.org <mailto: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 theALAC 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 AndréPascal- 75775 Paris Cedex 16
>>> >> Tel: +33 1 45 24 80 77 – Fax: +33 1 44 30 62 45
>>> >> nicola.bonucci at oecd.org <mailto:lisa.vonn at oecd.org>||www.oecd.org 
>>> >> <http://www.oecd.org/>
>>> >> Follow us on:
>>> >> <http://www.facebook.com/theOECD>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> <http://www.facebook.com/theOECD><http://www.youtube.com/oecd>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> <http://www.youtube.com/oecd><http://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> <http://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd><http://twitter.com/OECDtweet>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> <http://twitter.com/OECDtweet>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>


-- 
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.org +1 914-374-0613
Fellow, Yale Law School Information Society Project
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
http://wendy.seltzer.org/
https://www.chillingeffects.org/
https://www.torproject.org/
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/