Former ICANN Director Speaks out on Guidebook Issues

Ever wonder what former ICANN directors think about the planned new gTLD rollout?  Jonathan Cohen (director from November 1999 - June 2003) spoke a few months ago at the Munich session of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys, and had this to say:

"From a trade-mark owners perspective, DAG-4 is of significant concern because unfortunately, as in the first three iterations of the Guidebook, certain of the proposals have been either rejected entirely (such as the GPML) or modified to such a degree that their value as “rights protection mechanisms” (RPMs) is seriously compromised. This has been a great disappointment not only to IRT members, but to brand owners and the IP community in general who continue their efforts to ensure that IP protection is what it should be when the new gTLDs are ultimately rolled out.

In particular, the IRT recommendations represented a carefully thought out consensus position on a number of workable solutions for IP protection – as well as significant compromises on the part of IP holders – that were not intended to serve merely as a starting point for “negotiation”."

Jonathan has pre-registered to attend the ICANN Cartagena session.