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2023-03-20-igo protections
GAC Advice
2023-03-20-igo protections
ICANN76 Cancun Communique
Consensus met
2023-03-20-igo protections
a. The GAC advises the Board:
i. To proceed with the approval of the recommendations of the EPDP on Specific Curative Rights Protections for implementation;
ii. To maintain the current moratorium on the registration of IGO acronyms as domain names in New gTLDs presently in place until the full implementation of the recommendations of the EPDP on Specific Curative Rights Protections.
Rationale
The GAC affirms that IGOs perform important global public missions with public funds, that they are the unique treaty-based creations of governments under international law, and that their names and acronyms warrant appropriate tailored protection in the DNS in the global public interest to prevent consumer harm. It is also recalled that the EPDP Recommendations strike a balance between rights and concerns of both IGOs and legitimate third parties. In considering approving the Recommendations of the EPDP on Specific Curative Rights Protections for implementation, the GAC notes that the EPDP Recommendations received Full Consensus, and that the corresponding GNSO Council vote to approve said Recommendations was unanimous.
Insofar as the above-noted EPDP Recommendations propose targeted amendments to the UDRP Rules to accommodate IGOs in addressing the abuse of IGO identifiers in the DNS, this Advice supersedes those aspects of GAC Advice in the following Communiqués, as follows:
● In the GAC Los Angeles Communiqué (ICANN51), Section IV.5.b.i, in implementing any such curative mechanism, “the UDRP should not be amended”;
● In the GAC Hyderabad Communiqué (ICANN57), Section VI.4.II: “a dispute resolution mechanism modeled on but separate from the UDRP, which provides in particular for appeal to an arbitral tribunal instead of national courts, in conformity with relevant principles of international law”;
● In the GAC Johannesburg Communiqué (ICANN59), Section VI.1.a: “The GAC reiterates its Advice that IGO access to curative dispute resolution mechanism should: I. be modeled on, but separate from, the existing [UDRP], II. provide standing based on IGOs’ status as public intergovernmental institutions, and, III. respect IGOs’ jurisdictional status by facilitating appeals exclusively through arbitration.
In terms of the continuation of the moratorium, in the ICANN71 Communiqué, in advising the Board to maintain the current moratorium on the registration of IGO acronyms as domain names in New gTLDs pending the conclusion, and implementation, of the Recommendations of the IGO Curative Work Track, the GAC noted that in the absence of access to a curative rights protection mechanism, a mere notification of the registration of a domain name corresponding to its identifier is of no real utility to an IGO, because an IGO has no current ability to arbitrate a domain name dispute. In that same light, the GAC previously has advised the Board to maintain the current moratorium in the ICANN61 San Juan, ICANN62 Panama and ICANN71 Communiqués, noting that the removal of interim protections before a permanent decision is taken on a curative mechanism to protect IGO acronyms could result in irreparable harm to IGOs.