The staff recommends that the board consider us for negotiation. I take this as a
positive step. Especially in light of the fact that all of their criticisms of our
application were in error, I feel even more confident that this fair process will
result in our being asked to negotiate a contract with ICANN for our .Web registry.As
for the USPTO, please note that their guidelines are just that: guidelines. They
do not carry the force of law. They are open to appeal, and I believe that our attornies
have done so.
But this is really not all that important. The trademark rights are
not important. What is important is that we are running a stable registry, have been
for over four years, and have participated, in good faith, in this process since
day-one. In the absence of any substantive problem with our application material,
there is no reason for ICANN to not negotiate the contract with us, as their staff
report recommends (even when they mistakenly believe that there are problems with
our application).
Especially in light of the fact that both Afilias and NeuStar
have stated, for the record, that they are perfectly willing to operate registries
for any of the other TLDs they specified in their applications, there is no reason
to grant .Web to any other applicant than Image Online Design. To do so would be
to make a mockery of the whole process of introducing competition. Surely this is
not lost on ICANN, and this process will, when the day is done, be seen to have been
open and fair, even if it didn't appear to be so at the time.
Christopher Ambler