ICANN, Internet and the future Philip Sheppard, AIM - European Brands Association Names Council ICANN

ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers  Numbers - interest to technocrats  Names - of interest to Intellectual Property (IP)

Self-regulation - the players  Pipes and wires of the Internet  global registries, country registries, registrars, Internet Service Providers  Net users  business, non-commercial, intellectual property

Key IP issues  Domain names and the potential for cybersquatting  So, need for accurate information (WHOIS)  So, need for dispute resolution (UDRP)  So, need for care in new domain names

ICANN reform  After four years, time to review the structures and process  Agreed in Shanghai, November 2002  new by-laws  slimmer Board, some chosen by a nominating committee  new policy process  separation of generics and country-names

New policy issues  Transfers and deletes of domain names- restrictive practices  Improving WHOIS data  Improving the UDRP  Internationalised domain names  New top-level domain names (gTLDs)

New names - polarised debate  IP advocates shocked from.com cybersquating  Non-comms (freedom to name advocates) shocked from losing domains

Common ground  IP objective =consumer confidence IP strategy = IPR priority  Non-comm objective = fair use Non-comms strategy = limit IPR priority Same objective from perspective of net user  Findability

Proposal for differentiated names .com,.info are unrestricted, unsponsored .museum,.aero are restricted/sponsored  restricted to a set of users  sponsored by an enforcement body  Business wants all new names to be:  restricted/sponsored  subject to six principles

Creating clarity - principles 1.Differentiation – a gTLD must be clearly differentiated from all other gTLDs. 2.Certainty – a gTLD must give the user confidence that it stands for what it purports to stand for. 3.Honesty – a gTLD must avoid increasing opportunities for bad faith entities who wish to defraud users.

Domain name principles 4. Competition – a gTLD must create value- added competition. 5. Diversity – a gTLD must serve commercial or non-commercial users. 6. Meaning – a gTLD must have meaning to its relevant population of users.

A directory of names  Restricted / sponsored and these six principles creates a taxonomy or directory for the domain name system.  Solves 3 IP issues:  No possibility to cyber squat  No need/ability to defensively register  Accurate WHOIS

Business needs YOU! Business Constituency of DNSO  40 members, but 40,000 outreach  Join now Look at