ICANN prepares rights protection mechanisms

By Arlene Paredes

As part of the preparations for the launching of the application process for new TLDs, the ICANN staff has been studying the best ways to protect the rights of trademark owners to discourage malpractices and abuses among those who will apply for their own TLD.  This was further discussed on Wednesday during ICANN’s meeting in Seoul.

Previously, ICANN has formed the IRT (Implementation Recommendation Team) and subsequently, the IRT has done some research and public consultations to determine the best practices in the industry when it comes to trademark protection. The public consultations have been done online and live in Sydney (35th ICANN meeting), New York and London. The IRT has been drafting ICANN’s RPM (rights protection mechanism) since its formation.

The RPM will not only be utilized in the application process. It will be the basis for evaluating a new registry in three stages: pre-launch, launch, and full operations. The core functions of the RPM is to validate existing trademarks and provide all the important data for pre-launch claims or sunrise services.

The pre-launch claims are those that may arise before a new TLD goes into launching and the sunrise service claims may potentially come from trademark owners who are against the registration of their trademark as a domain name in a new TLD.

Moving forward, the IRT aims to put in place a clear and transparent guideline in consistently validating trademarks, as well as a justifiable amount of fee, among others.

Netpia celebrates ICANN’s 36th Meeting

Arlene Paredes

 
SEOUL, South Korea — The 36^th meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was officially opened Monday in Seoul. Netpia, a major sponsor of the event, warmly welcomed all the participants from all over the world.

 

Meanwhile, in his welcome speech ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush brought up the host city’s most significant contributions in the world economy. He acknowledged that South Korea is the largest ship builder and among the top five automobile manufacturing nations in the world. In terms of modern gadgets, Thrush quipped the high probability that the international guests are using a Korean-made mobile phone and also a Korean-made monitor with your computer, since South Korea is the leading manufacturer of LCD and LED TVs and monitors. “Korea is a global economic power,” Thrush said, adding, “(the) devices and ideas of this nation impact the lives of millions, if not billions, of people every day.” He said that this economic power of South Korea makes it a fitting venue for the 36^th ICANN meeting, considering the great deal of matters that will be discussed here throughout the week.

 

Thrush updated the international audience that South Korea has said that it wants to be part of ICANN’s fast track so it can establish a national TLD in Hangul characters, “because they have the same vision that ICANN does:  Making it possible to use the Internet in their own languages from the start of the address to the end.”

 

ICANN’s 36^th meeting is expected to be productive as it will deal with the issues of competition in the Internet industry, consumer protection, as well as security and stability issues. Malicious abuse processes and the infrastructure’s resiliency to these abuses will also be discussed. ICANN’s sovereignty concerns together with the consumers’ rights protection will also be discussed by the multi stakeholder group. And of course, the entire industry awaits more information and clarifications on the third version of the draft applicant guidebook for new gTLDs. Thrush said that by the time the application process for the new gTLDs is launched, the aforementioned topics for discussion will have been resolved.

Netpia to attend ICANN meeting in Mexico

Netpia.Com, Inc. is set to attend the 34th ICANN Meeting to be held in Mexico City, Mexico from the 28th of February until the 6th of March.

ICANN will reportedly release an updated draft applicant guidebook for the new gTLD application. The updates are based on the insights gathered during the public comment period, during which multistakeholders and community members had aired their views about the implications and potential scenarios that could stem from the launch of perhaps a hundred or more new gTLDs around the world.

The final RFP (Request for Proposal) is expected to be issued in time for the 35th Annual Meeting to be held in Sydney, Australia in June.

Among the most popular applied-for gTLD name strings are .nyc, .berlin, .sport, .music, etc.

The reception to the new gTLD application process has been varied. There are those who believe that this will only create confusion in a common user, while the others believe that such specific and to-the-point gTLD strings will enhance a user’s browsing experience, especially when in a foreign land.

Netpia will continue to monitor the developments in the new gTLD round, believing that new gTLDs, especially IDN.IDN are needed to improve the Internet browsing experience of non-English users, and to give brands an opportunity to create new advertising channels for their names.

Netpia, being the pioneer of the Native Language Internet Address (NLIA), is committed to bridging the digital divide caused by the variety of languages in the world. The Internet, after all, is meant for the global users.

Makedomain Press Release via PRWEB

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) January 19, 2009 — Newly launched Makedomain.com is ready to add more choices for domain players and newbie registrants across the globe.

 

Carrying the slogan ‘Make it happen,’ Makedomain hopes to be instrumental to giving everyone a chance at making e-commerce work to their advantage especially in these times when the global economy is experiencing a crunch time.

 

Operated by Netpia.com, Makedomain boasts of competitive prices and quick-response support team. Netpia is an ICANN-accredited registrar.

 

Makedomain is looking forward to establishing good relations with registrants and Internet players worldwide as it hopes to provide the best place for quick and simplified domain registration, renewal, and/or transfer.

 

Aside from being an ICANN registrar, Netpia.Com is the pioneer in the keyword address industry with its Native Language Internet Address (NLIA). NLIA is a society enabler that preserves and promotes the native languages in the online global scene.

 

Netpia International Business Director Euncheon (Joshua) Roh said, “Netpia has over 10 years of experience in the name space business — not just with the keyword address but also with domain registration. As such, we have become an expert in the industry and we are confident that we can efficiently serve the needs of the market. Soon, we may be able to make a synergistic step and bundle up a domain name and a keyword address for international users. This will be very exciting and useful to domain name registrants.”

 

Make your business happen with www.Makedomain.com.

ICANN publishes new info on the gTLD application process

Netpia is once again interrupting its series on Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities, this time to feature the latest update from ICANN.

ICANN wants gTLD applicants to include a rights protection mechanism in their proposals

More detais:

-Applicants should know that there will be an objection process for rights holders to assert that proposed gTLD strings would violate their legal rights.

-Even after a new gTLD registry has started operations, the rights issues will still be entertained. There will be a post-delegation dispute mechanism to deal with complaints of rights violations after a new gTLD is delegated and begins operation.

-Applicants for new gTLDs will be required to describe in their applications a proposed rights protection mechanism (for second-level domains), which will be published when its agreement is made public.

-All new gTLDs must ensure that all second-level registrations will be subject to ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

These pieces of information, however limited, are essential to organizations that have been planning to apply for a TLD string. Netpia is keeping itself updated, so this blog will be a means of storing information that are relevant to the new gTLD application process.

Bengali and Khmer Added to IDN Testing Process

Internationalized Domain Name wikis now cover 17 languages

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has added two new languages, Bengali and Khmer, to the global testing process for IDN.IDN. The test is based on new internationalized domains representing the name example.test entirely in scripts other than the familiar Latin characters.

“Each time we add a new language to the wiki, we open up the chance for more characters to be tested, and for more people to be involved and offer us input and ideas,” said Tina Dam, Director of ICANN’s Internationalized Domain Name Program.

“Our goal is for IDNs to be available when the application period for new top level domains are launched in the second quarter of 2009,” Dam added.

The other languages currently undergoing global testing process are: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Tamil, Yiddish, Amharic, Hebrew, Thai, and Urdu.

For more information, you can visit: http://idn.icann.org/
Source: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-09oct08-en.htm

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Netpia is monitoring ICANN’s progress on IDN.IDN. While we are strong in our position that the best way to simplify Internet names is to keep them keyword-type and in the natural language, we are not rejecting the idea that IDN.IDN could also help web browsing simpler for non-English users.

Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (Part 9)

This is the ninth entry on a series of posts regarding domain registrants’ rights and responsibilities as discussed by ALAC members.

Disclaimer: This was summarized from an ICANN update and is still subject to further studies by ALAC.

Awareness: Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities

11. ICANN may decide to publicly display all the names of registrar officers and directors, particularly when a registrar’s accreditation is terminated. It is the registrants rights to know the people behind the company that registered their Internet names.

12. The registrants have the right to excellent service. However, ICANN cannot impose penalties from registrars for perceived poor service, because imposing penalties may not promote and sustain a competitive environment. Therefore, registrants should do their own bit of research before signing up for a domain name.

13. Typosquatting is a process wherein registrants pay for domain names like samsong.com to increase their traffic by getting the visitors of samsung.com who made a mistake in typing. Unfortunately, does not impose rules on how a domain name should be used. Hence, typosquatting is not about to go away. However, if it comes to a point when typosquatting has proven to be harmful to the security, stability, reliability, and global interoperability of the Domain Name System (DNS), the ICANN will step in.

Netpia hopes that through these summarized points on the Rights and Responsibilities of Registrants, the company is able to help the market to make wiser choices and better decisions in domain registration.

Everyone is welcome to e-mail Netpia at inquiry@netpiacorp.com.

Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (Part 8)

This is the eighth entry on a series of posts regarding domain registrants’ rights and responsibilities as far as the ALAC is concerned.

Disclaimer: This was summarized from an ICANN update and is still subject to further studies by ALAC.

Awareness: Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities

10. The registrants are free to give the domain name control to anyone they choose as long as they don’t affect the security and stability of the DNS. Hence, registrars cannot stop actual users from contacting a third party registration service provider as long as the registrants agree to the registrars’ terms and conditions. There is no applicable law that could effectively require a registrar to determine the actual user who will benefit from a domain name registration.

Netpia promotes the use of the Internet in many different ways. While doing this, Netpia maintains a robust system to prevent any mishaps caused by irresponsible Internet players and users.

Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (Part 7)

This is the seventh entry on a series of posts regarding domain registrants’ rights and responsibilities as far as the ALAC is concerned.

Disclaimer: This was summarized from an ICANN update and is still subject to further studies by ALAC.

Awareness: Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities

8. It is the registrants’ responsibility to renew their domain name registration right before or after the expiry date of their contract with the registrar. Registrars have never been required by ICANN to offer a free service, such as providing more than one year’s worth of service for the payment of a one year registration fee.

9. Registrants may transfer their domain name to another registrar but this process is covered by the Transfer Policy and in the contractual relationship that exists between registrant and registrar. It is outside of ICANN’s mandate.

Netpia advises registrants to take a careful note of the expiry dates of their registrations. At the same time, Netpia is efficiently sending notices to the registrants to notify them of upcoming expiry dates.

Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (Part 6)

This is the sixth entry on a series of posts regarding domain registrants’ rights and responsibilities as far as the ALAC is concerned.

Disclaimer: This was summarized from an ICANN update and is still subject to further studies by ALAC.

Awareness: Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities

6. Registrants are free to register as many domains as they could afford as long as their registration mechanisms do not affect the stability of the DNS. ICANN does not intend to restrict access to registrations. Such a procedure is outside ICANN’s mandate and it will contradict ICANN’s mission to promote a competitive environment in the Internet.

7. Registrants are free to practice domain parking as long as the process does not put the DNS at risk. ICANN will not issue regulation on banning domain name parking because it is tantamount to restricting the competitive environment in the Internet.

Netpia hopes that by publishing the summarized analysis of ALAC regarding the rights and responsibilities of registrants, then the existing and prospective registrants will understand the choices that are available for them.