Every week one or more members of the MARQUES Cyberspace Team participates in an ICANN call or conference, pushing for policy improvements to the benefit of European brand owners.

Flip Petillion sits on ICANN’s GNSO Council where gTLD policy is made and so has been attending each meeting for the last 18 months together with Nick Wood and Georges Nahitchevansky who represent MARQUES in ICANN’s IP Constituency.

Here is a summary of current issues in ICANN that they are concentrating on:

• Review of UDRP (second part of Rights Protection Mechanism Review): This is now delayed until late 2020. MARQUES is co-ordinating its approach to the review with WIPO because the UDRP must be protected as the only proven cross-border mechanism for tackling domain infringement at a reasonable cost. Tinkering with 20 years of jurisprudence is a disaster.
• Rights Protection Mechanism Review phase 1: A report into the mechanisms adopted in Round 1 of the new gTLDs including the Trademark Clearinghouse, Sunrise, Trademark Claims and URS will be published for comment very soon.
• Subsequent Procedures Review: This review defines how Round 2 of new gTLD program will operate. A final public comment opportunity is expected to open in July 2020. The launch of round 2 is expected in 2022.
• Domain Name Abuse: A cross-party group of ICANN habitués representing registry operators, registrars, non-commercial interests, IP specialists and business has been working on a definition of abusive behaviour. There is pressure building for this definition to be added to the contracts of contracted parties (registries and registrars). In tandem, there are calls for ICANN’s Compliance Team to step up and act more effectively against bad actors who abuse the rights of others in the DNS.
• EPDP – Whois after GDPR: A cross-community team has published a draft report for public comment, recommending a “Hybrid Access” model whereby law enforcement, IP owners and others who need access to full and accurate registrant data can submit a standard form through one centralized portal that is then disseminated to the appropriate registry operator or registrar. There remain concerns about liability and it is not clear that the DPAs in Europe will accept this model, though early signs are encouraging.

As a result of the spread of Covid-19, ICANN67 in Mexico was cancelled and a virtual meeting arranged at short notice. It might be that ICANN68 planned for Kuala Lumpur in June will also become a virtual meeting.

By Nick Wood, Com Laude