[bc-gnso] RE: [bc-gnso] FW: Politico: ICANN’s debating what’s in a domain name

Thu Feb 21 04:27:09 UTC 2013

Most welcome, John.

I take your media counsel very seriously.

And I think you are right – there have already been protests from GAC members, Canadian retailers, US Telecom, Microsoft, registrars, and others, and I suspect the list will get quite a bit longer between now and Beijing.

Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
Virtualaw LLC
1155 F Street, NW
Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004
202-559-8597/Direct
202-559-8750/Fax
202-255-6172/cell

Twitter: @VlawDC

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

From: john at crediblecontext.com [mailto:john at crediblecontext.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 4:13 PM
To: Phil Corwin; bc-gnso at icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] FW: Politico: ICANN’s debating what’s in a domain name

Phil,

Thanks for this.  PoliticoPro is not a subscription I keep current!

From a communications point-of-view, ICANN has a real problem.  There are too many people/organizations/institutions that can claim a legitimate voice on this matter but are without complicity in the history of the subject.  There has been a discussion on the NTAG list about noise in DC (I have to figure it is WAY down the list of things to-do), but media attention is another matter.

Recall the media session in Toronto.  Based on the discussion, the Politico story is exactly the kind of she-said, he-said back-and-forth that even the mainstream media can get their arms around.

I thought the news of China's hacking activities on the eve of the meeting in Beijing was going to be the story, but, if enough brand-name companies can be drawn into this one, it will take off.

Watch that space.

Berard

--------- Original Message ---------
Subject: [bc-gnso] FW: Politico: ICANN’s debating what’s in a domain name
From: Phil Corwin <psc at vlaw-dc.com<mailto:psc at vlaw-dc.com>>
Date: 2/20/13 7:54 am
To: "bc-gnso at icann.org<mailto:bc-gnso at icann.org>" <bc-gnso at icann.org<mailto:bc-gnso at icann.org>>

FYI---

This Politico story on “closed generics”, which was behind a paywall at Politico Pro yesterday, is the lead story in Politico’s Technology section today…

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/icanns-debating-whats-in-a-domain-name-87816.html

[http://images.politico.com/global/v3/homelogo.gif]<http://www.politico.com/>

ICANN’s debating what’s in a domain name
By: Michelle Quinn
February 20, 2013 04:41 AM EST

Should a company be allowed to run a generic term such as tire, insurance or book as a domain and wall off its use from competitors?
That’s the question the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is wrestling with as it prepares to begin awarding firms new top-level domains — the words to the right of the dot. The nonprofit firm has been evaluating about 1,900 applications for new domains, many of them common dictionary terms.
There had been agreement that companies like Apple could win generic words such as apple because of its brand.
But companies such as Amazon, Google, Goodyear, L’Oreal and others also applied for a wide array of words and indicated that they would like to operate the registry as “closed” — meaning they may not allow other firms to buy what are known as second-level domains.
Clearly, companies want to own and control generic words as domains so that they can offer their services. But with that comes the possibility of blocking competitors who want to attach their brand to a term. For example, Ford might want to buy ford.truck but be blocked from doing so by the owner of .truck.
Now ICANN, which has been largely silent on the issue, is soliciting public comment.
“The train is leaving the station,” Akram Atallah, ICANN’s chief operating officer, said to POLITICO in an interview. “There are a few instances where stakeholders are feeling this is an issue that could limit competition, and therefore, we should bring it to the forefront.”
When it voted to expand the Internet names in 2010, ICANN leaders said they were doing so to encourage innovation. The firm did not specify in its domain name guidebook what terms like generic or closed might mean.
In a letter to ICANN’s leaders, Russell Pangborn, assistant general counsel of trademarks at Microsoft, wrote that the “situation threatens the openness and freedom of the Internet and could have harmful consequences for Internet users worldwide. These applications also present a competitive threat to other companies.”
“Generic words used in a generic way belong to all people,” Michele Neylon of Blacknight, a European Web-hosting firm, wrote in another letter signed by others. “It is inherently in the public interest to allow access to … new [generic top-level domains] to the whole of the Internet Community, e.g., .BLOG, .MUSIC, .CLOUD.”
Philip Corwin, founding principal of Virtualaw, who has one client competing with Google for some of the terms, said he will begin to lobby officials in Washington and Europe. “It is emerging as a big issue and one that is beyond ICANN but the future of e-commerce,” he said.
Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice and policy vice chairman for the ICANN business constituency, said there are “legitimate concerns about competition and potential confusion for consumers if a single competitor has perpetual control of a generic keyword as a top-level domain.”
Atallah said that having a generic term is not a guaranteed ticket to success.
The owner has to “do a lot of marketing and business development to be relevant in the marketplace,” he said. “It is not a given just by having the name, you have market share. It is not just the name that makes the name.”

© 2013 POLITICO LLC

Philip S. Corwin, Founding Principal
Virtualaw LLC
1155 F Street, NW
Suite 1050
Washington, DC 20004
202-559-8597/Direct
202-559-8750/Fax
202-255-6172/cell

Twitter: @VlawDC

"Luck is the residue of design" -- Branch Rickey

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