Applicant Support Guidelines

["Aikman-Scalese, Anne" <AAikman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear ICANN Board,

The newly published guidelines differ substantially from the Final Report of 
the JAS Working Group from September of 2011 and appear to have been revised in 
a "top down" fashion that is not consistent with the multi-stakeholder 
consensus policy-making model upon which ICANN is built.  Please refer to page 
2 of the Executive Summary of the JAS Working Group Final Report of September 
2011 and Item 68 in the body of the report.  These items confirm that ownership 
of a "trademark brand" was not intended to be a disqualifier.  Item 68 of the 
Final Report states as follows:


Ineligibility Criteria

68. The candidate must not be:

a) An applicant for a gTLD string that is not a generic word intended to 
reference a specific commercial entity (commonly referred to within ICANN as a 
"dot‐brand");

􀂃 However, applications for community names that may be subject to legal 
trademark protection are not necessarily disqualified from receiving support;  
(emphasis added)


Unfortunately, the Applicant Support Guidelines as currently drafted and set 
out for public comment state that owners of a "trademark brand" are ineligible 
for support.  This revision to the JAS Working Group Final Report is not only 
"top down" but will also have a chilling effect on the free speech of Native 
American tribes seeking to protect their language and culture.  In the U.S., it 
is very common for Native American tribes to have registered trademarks in the 
name of the tribe in order to protect their wares and genuine tribal goods.  
This applies to very large tribes who may not be good candidates for Applicant 
Support, but also to smaller tribes who are in fact sovereign nations with 
developing economies and who should in fact be eligible to receive such support 
to establish a Top Level Domain dedicated to their community's language and 
culture.  The current draft regarding eligibility makes these tribes ineligible 
because the tribe name or the tribe language may in fact be a "trademarked 
brand."  As attorneys representing a number of Native American communities in 
the Southwestern United Sates, we at Lewis and Roca urge ICANN to follow the 
multi-stakeholder consensus driven model and to revise the guidelines to read 
in accordance with the JAS Working Group Final Report cited above.



[cid:578103916@06012012-1C52]Anne E. Aikman-Scalese
Of Counsel
Lewis and Roca LLP • Suite 700
One South Church Avenue • Tucson, Arizona 85701-1611
Tel (520) 629-4428 • Fax (520) 879-4725
AAikman@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:AAikman@xxxxxxxxx> • 
www.LewisandRoca.com/Aikman<http://www.lewisandroca.com/Aikman>
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