Objections to new gTLD Applications

I have had a number of complaints about the action of the dispute resolution providers in accepting some objections past the deadline. It appears that these come into two categories, some with very large attachments to emails which were sent before the deadline, but which took some time to transmit, meaning the final parts were sent late. In addition some were sent minutes after the deadline due to technical difficulties. Two complainants have both made a formal complaint to my office stating that I should recommend to the board that late complaints should not be received on the basis that the deadlines were well advertised and achievable. It appears from my discussions that there appears to have been a window of a a few moments permitted by the dispute resolution providers. It should also be added that ICANN did not approve or disapprove the leeway given by the dispute resolution providers. I am interested to hear community comments on this issue. One of the complainants specifically suggested a blog entry, and I have also made a Twitter comment. I look forward to hearing from you either here, on Twitter or to ombudsman@icann.org. Full confidentiality is of course assured if you wish this.