Internationalized Domain Names: Overview of ICANN Activities Masanobu Katoh, Chair, IDN Committee Director, ICANN Board Joint ITU/WIPO Symposium on Multilingual Domain Names Geneva, Switzerland December 6, 2001

December 6, 2001 IDN Working Group Formation: Melbourne Meeting, March 2001 Mission statement: Surveys: 30apr01.htmhttp:// 30apr01.htm Stockholm Status Report: 05jul01.htm 05jul01.htm Montevideo Final Report: 29aug01.htm 29aug01.htm

December 6, 2001 Big Picture Technical Issues Absence of a Standard Short-term vs. Long Term Solution? Are We Asking Too Much of DNS? (Identifier vs. Identity)

December 6, 2001 Big Picture Policy Issues Responding to Increased Opportunities for Cybersquatting Responding to Demand for Top-Level IDNs

December 6, 2001 Montevideo Report Echoes GAC March 2001 Communiqué Essential Importance of Universal Interoperability to the Internet Prevention of Cybersquatting by Dispute Resolution Policies and Sunrise Periods Competition, Market Access, and Consumer Protection

December 6, 2001 IDN Working Group Recommendations ICANN Board Should: Encourage IETF to adopt standards as quickly as possible; Establish a committee to provide recommendations on non-technical policy issues, including interoperability, cybersquatting/dispute resolution, top level domains, consumer protection, and competition.

December 6, 2001 New IDN Committee At the September 10, 2001 meeting in Montevideo, the ICANN Board passed a resolution establishing a new IDN Committee "to serve as a general coordination body for the work on policy issues identified in the IDN Working Group Report and such other policy issues that the IDN Committee shall identify."

December 6, 2001 IDN Committee Structure Will develop specific policy alternatives and recommendations for Board consideration Chaired by Masanobu Katoh At Marina del Rey Meeting, Board approved 6 Committee Members (with more to be added at a later date), including individuals from the ICANN Board, GAC, Supporting Organizations, and other experts Panels of Volunteer Experts from different fields and language groups will also be consulted.

December 6, 2001 IDN Committee Work Plan Hope to present recommendations to Board at June 2002 Meeting. Initial Topics for Consideration Include: 1.Adequacy of existing UDRP framework to IDN environments Example: “Confusingly Similar” element 2.Whether Top-Level IDN Domains are feasible Policy considerations Practical considerations

December 6, 2001 Thank You Thank you very much. For more information, please visit