Comments of Intellectual Property Constituency

["Metalitz, Steven" <met@xxxxxxx>]

The Intellectual Property Constituency ("IPC") is submitting this
comment on behalf of its membership to express our conditional support
for the funnel request submitted by Afilias.  In addition, the IPC
wishes to commend Afilias along with its fellow registry operators PIR
and NeuStar for their willingness to participate in multi-stakeholder
discussions in order to explore possible solutions to the domain name
tasting issue. Although the IPC believes that the most effective
solution to the domain name tasting issue is the complete elimination of
the 5-day Add Grace Period ("AGP"), the IPC is hopeful that the
modifications proposed in Afilias' funnel request will substantially
curb the abusive practices associated with domain name tasting until
such time as the current PDP can be successfully completed. The IPC
remains hopeful the current PDP on domain tasting will provide a
possible solution for all gTLD registries. In the interim, we are very
pleased to see Afilias proposing modifications to practices within the
.info registry aimed at thwarting abusive domain name tasting practices.
Furthermore, we call upon all gTLD registries to follow the lead of PIR,
Afilias and NeuStar in voluntarily adopting modifications to eliminate
domain name tasting until such time as the GNSO Council can recommend a
consensus policy for all gTLD registries to the ICANN Board.
Steve Metalitz, IPC President