GAC Advice

The GAC provides advice to the ICANN Board on policy matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN’s policies and various laws, international agreements and public policy objectives. GAC Advice is communicated to the ICANN Board through either a Communique or a formal piece of Correspondence.

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

Topics Discussed: IGOs

GAC Advice

Reference No. :

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

First Delivered 21 Jun 2021 via :

ICANN71 GAC Communique

Consenus:

Consensus met

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

While continuing to welcome work being undertaken by the GNSO in terms of a curative rights protection mechanism for IGOs, the GAC wishes to clarify that the current moratorium on the registration of IGO acronyms should remain in place pending a conclusion to this curative work track.

a. The GAC advises the Board:

to maintain the current moratorium on the registration of IGO acronyms pending the conclusion of the IGO curative work track currently underway (noting that it is expected to conclude within the calendar year).

Rationale

In the context of the above-mentioned curative rights work track, in the ICANN70 Communique, the GAC had recalled “ICANN agreement on a moratorium for new registrations of IGO acronyms ahead of a final resolution of this [curative rights protection] issue.” The GAC does not share the Board’s view in its 2 June 2021 email {7} that “the GAC’s concern about the need to protect IGOs on a permanent basis is addressed by the Board’s determination to provide IGOs with a post-registration notification service on a permanent, ongoing basis.”
The GAC does not share the Board’s assessment that such notification would “allow[ ] an IGO to take appropriate action to protect related acronyms.” In the absence of access to a curative rights protection mechanism, a notification is of no real utility, because an IGO has no current ability to arbitrate a domain name dispute.
The GAC previously has advised the Board to maintain current temporary protections of IGO acronyms in the ICANN61 San Juan and ICANN62 Panama Communiqués, noting in the San Juan Communiqué that the “removal of interim protections before a permanent decision on IGO acronym protection [(i.e., a curative mechanism)] is taken could result in irreparable harm to IGOs.”

{7} See GAC Chair and ICANN Board Chairman correspondence regarding ”Follow-up on Process and Substantive Aspects of GAC/Board Consultation on IGO Protections” at: https://gac.icann.org/advice/correspondence/

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

GAC Advice

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

ICANN71 GAC Communique

Consensus met

2021-06-21 IGO Protections

Rationale

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