[council] GNSO Council Decision to Defer RPMs Phase 2 for 18 Months

[Julie Hedlund]

Dear Councilors,

This is in response to an action item for the GNSO Council captured following the 16 February 2023 Council meeting to provide a rationale for the Council’s decision to defer next steps on the RPMs PDP Phase 2 (UDRP Review) for 18 months.

As you may recall, the Council previously discussed the need to review the RPMs charter in advance of launching Phase 2 of the PDP. The Council determined that a Policy Status Report (PSR) should be requested from ICANN org, in order to better understand if new issues or information has emerged that would be relevant to a comprehensive review of the policy.  ICANN org’s Global Domains and Strategy (GDS) team completed the PSR<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/udrp-status-report-13jul22-en.pdf> and shared it with the Council for discussion during the July 2022 meeting.   Discussions in subsequent meetings seemed to indicate support from the Council to delay next steps based on a number of reasons, but primarily because of the amount of competing work. The Council agreed during its November 2022 meeting that because of the launch of the Phase 1 RPMs Implementation Review Team (IRT), which would likely have overlapping community support with a Phase 2 PDP, the delay for next steps should be tied to the completion or key milestones for the IRT.

During its meeting on 16 February 2023, the GNSO Council agreed to defer next steps on the RPMs PDP Phase 2 for 18 months and to provide a rationale for its decision.  Accordingly, the reasons for the deferral are that the IRT will occupy the same people and staff as Phase 2, and the IRT is expected to take about 18 months to complete its work. Thus, to avoid overloading community and staff resources, the Council agreed that it is preferable to pause Phase 2 until the IRT has concluded its work. The Council also emphasized that this timeframe is consistent with that which it had suggested in its previous discussions, and that the 18-month deferral could always be revisited if the IRT were to take more, or less, time to complete.

This deferral will be added to the consent agenda for the GNSO Council meeting on 20 April. Approval of the accompanying motion to defer will start the 18-month period from 20 April 2023.  In accordance with standard procedure, motions for items on the consent agenda will be submitted by Council leadership to the GNSO Council list by Monday, 10 April, the document and motion deadline.

Kind regards,
Julie
Julie Hedlund sent on behalf of GNSO Council Leaders

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