The Impending Internet Expansion: What You Need to Know. Kristina Rosette April 19, 2011

Transcription

1 The Impending Internet Expansion: What You Need to Know Kristina Rosette April 19, 2011

2 How Will the Internet Expand and Who Will Control It? Introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (gtlds) by ICANN gtlds --> to the right of the dot in.com,.net,.org,.museum,.travel ICANN is the California non-profit public benefit corporation charged with coordinating at the overall level, the global Internet s systems of unique identifiers, and in particular, to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet s unique identifier systems. Relationship with USG evolving over time

3 Why Are New gtlds News Now? Application window expected to open in Q with new gtlds launched in late 2012 or early 2013 ICANN Board announced in mid-march its intention to approve new gtld Applicant Guidebook on June 20, 2011 some objection anticipated from national governments last public comment period to open on April 15 ICANN Board approved underlying policy recommendations in June 2008 and implementation work ongoing since then

4 Why Introduce New gtlds? ICANN claims introduction of new gtlds will lead to innovation, choice, and change. Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) will make the Internet more globally and culturally inclusive. limited to country names thus far UAE,(.ااممااررااتت) Saudi Arabia,(.االلسسععووددييةة) Russian (.ممصصرر) Federation (.рф), and Egypt

5 New gtlds?

6 What Opportunities & Challenges? Opportunities Control Internet real estate for brand (.brand) or industry sector (generic) Brand expansion and visibility Authentication/security and possible long-term drop in cybersquatting Challenges Potential explosion in cybersquatting and online fraud Changes to advertising models Consumer awareness and education Increased importance of search Adjusting to an IDN environment

7 Why Plan Now? Short application window and lengthy, complicated application Limited objection period with limited grounds Best gtlds secured in first round and multi-year delay before second round. Limited number of back-end registry services providers with limited capacity. All companies will have a role decide now what yours will be

8 New gtld Decision Points What role applicant, objector, registrant? Who decides what role? How is that decision made? If applicant: what string (given character requirements)? if generic term in industry, join with any competitor? what type of application? registration open or restricted? how much willing to spend? what entity will be applicant? where organized? operate or retain back-end registry service provider? what rules and policies? how deal with requirements that use only ICANN-accredited registrars and those registrars must be given equal access to registry? if.brand, any third party with rights to launch objection? is permanent string preclusion important?

9 New gtld Decision Points If objector: what strings likely to be of concern? evidence and documents readily available? join with other objectors? if bypass objection process in favor of courts, where litigate? If registrant: how adjust registration and enforcement strategy? what marks placed in Clearinghouse? prepared to defend decision not to apply?

10 What Are the Fees? Application fee: $185,000 per applied-for gtld 20-70% refund if application withdrawn Annual fee to ICANN: $25,000 plus additional fee (currently $0.25 per domain name) for each domain name over 50,000 registered in the gtld Dispute Resolution Fees: $ for filing; and adjudication ranges from $ (fixed) to $32, ,000 (hourly) Financial continuity instrument

11 Application Process Presumes Approval Evaluation process presumes that applications for new gtld strings submitted by technically, financially, and organizationally qualified applicants will be approved unless Confusingly similar to existing TLD or Reserved Name; Geographic Name and no documentation of support/nonobjection from relevant government; Competing applications for same string; and/or Third party asserts successful objection.

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14 Application Categories Community-based gtld: operated for benefit of clearly delineated community consisting of restricted population. applicants must (i) demonstrate ongoing relationship with defined community that consists of restricted population; (ii) apply for gtld string that strongly and specifically relates to named community; (iii) propose dedicated registration and use policies for registrants commensurate with community-based purpose; and (iv) have written endorsement from one or more established institutions representing named community Standard gtld: everything else possible to have formal relationship with exclusive registrant or user population and may employ eligibility or use restrictions. Cannot change application type after submission

15 Initial Evaluation Examination categories: String Review and Applicant Review String Review components: String Similarity, Reserved Names, DNS Stability, and Geographical Names. Applicant Review components: demonstration of technical and operational capability, demonstration of financial capability, and registry services. 6 Examination Panels: String Similarity Panel, DNS Stability Panel, Geographic Names Panel, Technical Evaluation Panel, Financial Evaluation Panel, and Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel

16 String Review - String Similarity Compare applied-for gtld string against (a) existing TLDs and Reserved Names; and (b) applied-for gtlds and IDN cctlds. algorithm score ( String confusion exists where string so nearly resembles another visually that it is likely to deceive or cause confusion String confusion review outcomes confusion with existing TLD or Reserved Name -> application fails examination confusion with applied-for string -> strings go into contention sets

17 Third-party Objections Infringement of Legal Rights Strings must not infringe the existing legal rights of others that are recognized or enforceable under generally accepted and internationally recognized principles of law. Standard is whether potential use of applied-for TLD takes unfair advantage of distinctive character or reputation of the objector s mark, unjustifiably impairs distinctive character or reputation of objector s mark, or otherwise creates likelihood of confusion 8 factors considered; standing limited to rights holders WIPO is DRP Outcomes: Successful objection -> application fails; unsuccessful objection -> application proceeds

18 Resolving String Contention String contention not resolved until after objection period closed and all objection proceedings decided. Three resolution methods self-resolution, community priority evaluation, or auction self-resolution: all but one applicant in contention set can withdraw its application or create joint venture as long no material change in application Community priority evaluation: only community-based applicants may participate after paying additional evaluation fee Score four criteria on 4-point scale: community establishment, community endorsement, dedicated registration policies, nexus between proposed string and community

19 Trademark Protections Trademark Clearinghouse: centralized database of authenticated documents evidencing trademark rights to support efficient administration of rights protection mechanisms limited to registered marks and court-validated common-law marks; registrations from countries that do not conduct substantive examination must be validated for use Mandatory second-level pre-launch Rights Protection Mechanism Trademark Claim Service or Sunrise Process Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) intended to be fast, efficient, and fair mechanism for dealing with most blatant instances of cybersquatting intended to be faster and cheaper than UDRP, but unclear to what extent will be utilized

20 Questions? Kristina Rosette