[PC-NCSG] ICANN stmt on discussions on TMCH and IPC/BC proposals for rpms

[Robin Gross]

http://blog.icann.org/2012/11/building-a-secure-and-reliable- 
trademark-clearinghouse/

Building a Secure and Reliable Trademark Clearinghouse

by Fadi Chehad? on November 7, 2012

Last week, I invited a group of stakeholder representatives to work  
with ICANN on architecture/implementation solutions for the Trademark  
Clearinghouse. The issues we tackled included:

     * Registration: How trademark data will be verified and recorded  
in the Clearinghouse.
     * Sunrise Management: How new gTLD registries will use  
Clearinghouse data to confirm eligibility for early registration of  
domain names.
     * Claims Management: How new gTLD registries and registrars will  
facilitate required notices of Clearinghouse records during the  
domain name registration process.

Members of the Business, Intellectual Property, and Noncommercial  
Users constituencies, as well as the Registrar and Registry  
stakeholder groups, all contributed to a constructive discussion on  
implementation approaches, and found common ground in several areas.

Here is a summary of our findings:
Trademark Submission and Verification
Publication of Functional Specifications

ICANN will provide a roadmap for the development of the trademark  
submission and verification components of the Clearinghouse in  
December 2012. It will clearly define the capabilities that will be  
available in the initial release planned for early 2013, to support  
those parties who will be implementing and building internal  
processes and systems to work with this element of the Clearinghouse.
TLD Launch and Sunrise Information

ICANN is exploring options to help ensure that timely and accurate  
information on new gTLD launches is readily available. The options we  
discussed include an advance notice requirement and a central web  
portal to track the dates and requirements for each new gTLD sunrise  
period. Organizing this information in a timely fashion will keep  
users informed of current activity and help them plan effectively for  
upcoming launches. ICANN will deliver such capabilities next year  
before delegating any new gTLDs.
Communications and Training Activities

We agreed that there should be implementation seminars conducted  
periodically to ensure a continuous dialogue between the implementers  
and the different types of users. Given the diversity of users we  
expect will access the Clearinghouse (including a range of volume and  
service roles), training ?tracks? will help Clearinghouse users  
become familiar with specific features most useful to them.  
Educational materials, including a step-by-step guide to the  
verification process, also will be available. ICANN will coordinate  
the provisioning of such services with its delivery partner in the  
near term.
Sunrise Implementation
Use of Signed Sunrise Data Files

The group agreed to support a model for sunrise in which  
Clearinghouse record data is provided to rights holders in the form  
of a data file cryptographically signed with a Clearinghouse public  
key. It can then be used to enable registration of a domain name in  
the sunrise period. The specific fields to be included in the file  
are matters for follow-up discussions.
Flexibility for Rights Holders in Sunrise

The group discussed the degree of ?matching? that should be required  
between the Clearinghouse record and the Whois data for a domain name  
registered based on the sunrise eligibility. Given that a valid data  
file means that the Clearinghouse has verified the information, and  
that flexibility is important to trademark holders, we did not reach  
agreement on a matching requirement. However, registries are free to  
perform additional verification steps at their discretion. Dispute  
resolution procedures are available to address cases of fraud or  
other abuse relating to sunrise registrations.
Trademark Claims Implementation
Centralized and De-centralized Features

Participants reviewed the features of possible centralized and  
decentralized systems, and agreed to support a ?hybrid? system for  
Trademark Claims. In this system, a file of domain name labels  
derived from the trademarks recorded in the Clearinghouse (and hence  
subject to a Claims Notice) would be distributed to all registries  
and updated on a regular basis, and a live query system would be used  
to retrieve the detailed data from the Clearinghouse when necessary  
to display the Claims Notice to a prospective registrant. To ensure  
accuracy and consistency across TLDs, it was agreed that there should  
be a compliance requirement for the Clearinghouse to report to ICANN  
when registries don?t download the list of names with the frequency  
required.
Registry guidelines

All new gTLD registries are required to offer a minimum 30-day  
sunrise period, and to offer the trademark claims service for the at  
least first 60 days of general registration. Participants agreed to  
collaborate on recommended definitions to support additional clarity  
around these periods, in connection with ICANN?s publication of  
guidelines for registries concerning the sunrise and claims services.  
The 30 and 60 day periods are minimums, and registries have  
discretion to extend both periods.
Data protection

There was discussion on implementing an appropriate framework for  
access and use of the data. The group considered whether measures  
were necessary specifically to address potential mining of the  
Clearinghouse database for purposes other than to support the rights  
protection mechanisms. Given that the Trademark Clearinghouse is  
designed to provide trademark data for particular purposes, there was  
agreement that most controls would be ineffective in attempting to  
control data elements once provided to other parties.
Next Steps

The work we accomplished last week in Brussels puts us on solid  
ground for continued progress. We will hold follow-up meetings next  
week in Los Angeles with stakeholder groups invited to send  
representatives. A technical session with the Clearinghouse service  
provider will cover implementation architecture for Sunrise and  
Trademark Claims. A second meeting will cover the recent IPC/BC  
proposal for Improvements and Enhancements to the RPMs for new gTLDs  
[PDF, 68 KB], strictly focusing on implementation versus policy  
issues, as well as the business and contractual framework for the  
Clearinghouse, including the service-level agreements and pricing.

My thanks to both the stakeholders and the ICANN team for their  
contributions to this effort. We made real progress!

Best,

Fadi






IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org






IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.ipjustice.org/pipermail/pc-ncsg/attachments/20121107/9055ee83/attachment.html>