INTA Delegation to Visit India in March - International Trademark Association

While others were winding down for the holidays, INTA maintained its active pace with respect to advocacy efforts. The Association participated in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) from December 18 to 21 in Geneva, Switzerland. This year’s theme was “Shape Your Digital Future” and covered a wide variety of topics, including expanding Internet access to underserved populations, balancing free speech and privacy rights against Internet security and safety, the role of data in trade, data access, and content regulation.

Lori Schulman, INTA’s Senior Director for Internet Policy, represented INTA on a panel focused on “Multistakeholder Governance of the Domain Name System, Lessons Learned for other Internet Governance Issues.” Ms. Schulman discussed the evolution of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP) as an excellent example of a solution that was created by the bottom-up multistakeholder process to combat cybersquatting. There is agreement among registries and brand owners that the UDRP works. It solves a problem that is unique to the domain system at relatively low cost. Contributors to the multistakeholder process include representatives from the technical community, private sector, civil society, and academia.

Substantive Comments Submitted

In keeping with INTA’s commitment to ICANN’s policy development process, four substantive comments were submitted in the areas of consumer choice, competition, and trust, and ICANN’s accountability mechanisms (CCWG and WS2). The comments are available here under Testimony and Submissions.

Outgoing INTA Internet Committee leadership passed the baton mid-race to new leadership in seamless fashion. INTA highlighted its findings from the 2017 New gTLD Cost Impact Study and clarified points to help the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (CCT) and Review Team refine its conclusions as to whether the new generic top-level domain program (new gTLD) met its objectives of improving choice and competition in the domain name market place. INTA encourages ongoing study and analysis of the program as it is still relatively new.

INTA submitted three sets of comments in the area of ICANN’s accountability reforms that touched on jurisdiction, improving the role of the Office of Ombudsman, and promoting diversity at ICANN. The jurisdictional topics focused on ICANN’s compliance with U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) regulations and Choice of Law and Venue in ICANN contracts.

INTA continues to monitor the implementation of ICANN’s accountability reforms and is creating an accountability score card to highlight ICANN’s progress in this regard.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of items in the INTA Bulletin, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.