[gnso-rn-wg] Follow-Up to Today's Call

["Michael D. Palage" <Michael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All:

Here is a succinct statement of my concern regarding the appropriateness
of certain ICANN/IANA reserved names. While I fully support the
reservation of names that have potential security and stability
concerns, e.g., "bq--1k2n4h4b" or "xn--ndk061n", I do have significant
reservation with regard to the reservation of names such as IANA, ICANN,
GNSO, IAB, IETF, etc. 

In connection with my extensive work with the WIPO II final report
regarding geographical identifiers, I have also spent a lot of time
reviewing IGO domain name conflicts. As ICANN promotes itself as an
internationally organized, non-profit organization, I believe it creates
a potential double standard by which ICANN reserves/blacklists a subset
of its names when other IGOs are forced to fend for themselves with
other business and trademark owners trying to protect their brand. 

Given the work on potential modification to the UDRP regarding IGOs,
ICANN might wish to consider registering or unreserving those names at
such time that a suitable IGO UDRP mechanism is available. Seeking to
maintain a double standard potentially subjects ICANN to attacks in
other fora.

With regard to the reserved names of www, nic and whois. Although I have
some concern regarding how these words are reserved as discussed on the
call today, in the interest of practicality I will withdraw any concerns
that I raised today. I believe the most important aspect is allowing
registries to use these strings in an intuitive fashion to assist
Internet users in finding the information that they want. Since that is
possible with the current contractual provisions, our time should be
devoted toward other efforts.

Tamara with regard to the wording of the "common names", I believe a
more suitable working title would be "commonly used words and phrases."
Although most lay people would refer to these as generic names, generic
has a distinct legal distinction that we should try to avoid. 

Best regards,

Michael D. Palage