Public Comment
Proposed Implementation of GNSO Consensus Policy Recommendations for the Protection of IGO & INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs
Open Date
17 May 2017 23:59 UTC
Close Date
10 July 2017 23:59 UTC
Staff Report Due
1 August 2017 23:59 UTC
Brief Overview
Purpose: This public comment forum is intended to gather community feedback on the proposed implementation of consensus policy recommendations governing the protection of identifiers for International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) in all generic Top Level Domains. Specifically, this proposed implementation is limited only to those Consensus Policy recommendations adopted by the ICANN Board on 30 April 2014, which were not inconsistent with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice received on the topic. These recommendations relate to protection at the top- and second-level only for certain specific names of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement (RCRC), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), certain IGOs, and INGOs. This implementation does not address Red Cross or IGO acronyms, which are under discussion by the ICANN Board, the GAC, and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).
Current Status: ICANN organization worked with the community-based Implementation Review Team (IRT) to produce the Proposed Implementation of the GNSO Policy for the Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs [PDF, 394 KB] being published for comment.
Next Steps: ICANN organization will prepare a public comment summary report at the conclusion of the comment period. ICANN organization and the IRT will consider those comments in preparation of the final implementation of the IGO/INGO Identifier Protection Consensus Policy. After the implementation plan has been finalized, ICANN's Contracted Parties will be notified of the implementation/compliance deadlines.
Section I: Description and Explanation
This Proposed Implementation of the GNSO policy [PDF, 394 KB] requires generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) operators to implement certain protections for International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs), including reserving the names from registration by third parties and implementing a notification service where the protected organization will receive a notice if a third party registers a domain name that corresponds to its organization name. Protections at the top-level will be implemented in any subsequent round of new gTLDs. At the second-level, all gTLD registry operators will be required to withhold the specified names from registration. The protections within this policy only cover specific names of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement (RCRC), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), certain IGOs, and INGOs according to the recommendations already adopted by the ICANN Board. Specifically, the names that are protected by this policy are:
- Full names of specific INGOs in English only: reservation at the top-level for INGOs with United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs General Consultative status and protection with a notification service at the second-level for INGOs with United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs General or Special Consultative status.
- Full names of specific IGOs in up to two (2) languages: reservation at the top- and second-level.
- Full names of Red Cross Movement (Red Cross, Red Crescent, Red Crystal, Red Lion & Sun in 6 UN languages): reservation at the top- and second-level.
- Full names of International Olympic Committee (Olympic and Olympiad in UN6 languages plus German, Greek, and Korean): reservation at the top- and second-level.
This policy implementation does not cover GNSO policy recommendations relating to other RCRC and IGO identifiers that have not been adopted by the ICANN Board. These recommendations and related ongoing discussions can be found on the community wiki page: https://community.icann.org/x/eoPRAw.
This policy also provides the Red Cross, IOC, and IGO organizations a way to register the domain names matching their full names. Registry operators and registrars will be required to devise methods for registering the reserved full names by the relevant Red Cross, IOC, and IGO organizations.
For INGOs, a Claims Service will be required for any gTLD delegated after the effective date of this Consensus Policy. Registry operators will provide the INGO Claims Service for the first ninety (90) calendar days for which domain names in that gTLD are available for registration. The Claims Service requires that registrars notify a potential registrant that the name requested for registration is an exact match of the DNS Label(s) on the INGO Identifier List and that the name may be subject to ICANN's IGO/INGO Identifiers Protection Policy. If the registrant proceeds to register the name, the matching INGO will receive a notification. Registry operators and registrars must provide the Claims Services for INGO names that are an exact match of the DNS Label(s) on the INGO Identifier List referred to within the draft policy.
In particular, we invite feedback on the following areas of the policy implementation:
- DNS Label Conversion Rules: the consensus policy recommendations included lists of IGO/INGO names that should be protected. As part of implementation, the policy proposes a set of "conversion rules" to convert the names on the protected list to DNS labels that can be referred to by registry operators. Among other things, the rules establish how to treat spaces between words when a protected name is more than one word as well as how to account for names with diacritical marks. For example, the conversion rules would generate two DNS labels for the protected name "Red Crescent". The labels would be "redcrescent" and "red-crescent". The conversion rules would generate one DNS label for "Olímpico", which would be "xn--olmpico-8ya".
- INGO Claims Notification: Appendix A of the draft policy includes the proposed language that will be sent to a potential registrant if the potential registrant attempts to register a domain name that is an exact match of the DNS Label on the INGO Identifier List. As recommended by the GNSO consensus policy recommendations, the notice was modeled after the Trademark Clearing House (TMCH) claims notification. It should be noted that the "INGO Claims Notice" is a separate notice from the TMCH notice to distinguish it from the trademark-based notices of the TMCH.
- Updates to IGO Identifier List: Implementation of this draft policy will use the IGO names list provided by the GAC [PDF, 110 KB] to create the initial list of the DNS Labels as required by the policy recommendation. This list currently contains one language per IGO; however, the policy allows for an optional second language. At present, the second language list is not yet available from the GAC. Therefore, the implementation plan is to begin with the existing language and add a second language when it becomes available.
Section II: Background
Issues related to whether certain international organizations such as IGOs, the RCRC, and the IOC should receive special protection for their names at the top- and second-level of the Domain Name System (DNS) have been raised throughout the development of the New gTLD Program. The GAC has advised that these organizations perform important public interest or humanitarian work. In addition, the organizations themselves have reported that cybersquatting and related abuses of domain names that are identical or confusingly similar to their names and acronyms could significantly impact their missions and resources. Thus, the GNSO initiated a Policy Development Process (PDP) to develop policy recommendations for the provision of protection for identifiers of certain IGOs and INGOs, including the RCRC and the IOC. The PDP Working Group completed its work in November 2013 and all its consensus recommendations were approved by the GNSO Council.
In April 2014, the ICANN Board adopted part of those recommendations: the GNSO Council's unanimous recommendations on the Protection of IGO-INGO Identifiers in all gTLDs set forth in Annex A [PDF, 74 KB] of the Board resolution, which concern the GNSO recommendations that are not inconsistent with GAC advice received on the topic. In addition, the Board requested additional time to consider the GNSO Council's remaining unanimous recommendations on the protection of IGO-INGO Identifiers in all gTLDs as set forth in Annex B [PDF, 90 KB] of the Board resolution and continues to facilitate discussions among the relevant parties to reconcile the remaining differences between the policy recommendations and the GAC advice on the topic. The ICANN Board has directed the ICANN President and CEO to proceed with the implementation of the recommendations adopted in April 2014.
A Consensus Policy Implementation Team was formed to begin work on the implementation plan. An IRT consisting of members of the PDP Working Group and interested community members was also formed to work with the Consensus Policy Implementation Team in line with the Consensus Policy Implementation Framework [PDF, 594 KB] developed by ICANN's Global Domains Division and adopted by the GNSO Council following the work of its Policy & Implementation Working Group. The IRT has been serving as a resource to implementation staff on questions related to the adopted policy and technical implementation issues. The IRT has also served as a resource to ICANN organization on the background and rationale of the policy recommendations as well as assisting the implementation team in the planning for the technical implementation of a policy change.
Section III: Relevant Resources
- Proposed Implementation of the GNSO Policy for the Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDS – https://community.icann.org/display/IIPIRT/Documentation?preview=/56136698/64079076/IGO-INGO%20Identifier%20Protection%20draft%20v10%2020170315.pdf [PDF, 395 KB]
- IGO-INGO Protections Implementation Review Team Community webpage – https://community.icann.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=54694212
Section IV: Additional Information
- Board Resolution on IGO/INGO Policy and its Annexes (30 April 2014) – https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/resolutions-2014-04-30-en#2.a
- GNSO Council Recommendation on IGO/INGO Policy to the Board (23 January 2014) – https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/council-board-igo-ingo-23jan14-en.pdf [PDF, 705 KB]
- IGO-INGO Final Report – https://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/igo-ingo-final-10nov13-en.pdf [PDF, 644 KB]
- Discussion Group Wiki Page for IGO/INGO Policy recommendations not adapted by the board – https://community.icann.org/display/IRCIDG/IGO+and+Red+Cross+Identifiers+Discussion+Group+Home
Comments Closed
Report of Public Comments