The ICANN Board is expected to vote on the GNSO Improvement Report, which proposes to restructure the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), within the next few months. The GNSO is one of the three supporting organizations within ICANN and elects two members to ICANN’s 15-strong Board. It is the main body in which IP owners’ interests are represented.
The GNSO now has six constituencies: Commercial & Business, gTLD Registries, Internet Service Providers, Non-Commercial, Registrars and Intellectual Property.
Under proposals that were put out for public comment in February this year, the Commercial, ISPs and IP constituencies will be merged into one Commercial Interest Group. This will reduce the voting power and voice of private-sector interests compared to non-commercial interests, registries and registrars.
This could ultimately reduce the influence that IP owners have when ICANN is deciding policies on issues such as domain tasting and Whois searches, which directly affect rights owners.
Claudio DiGangi, INTA External Relations Manager, Internet & The Judiciary, told the INTA Daily News: “It is unclear where the IP Constituency would fit in to this revised structure. It is even possible it might get dissolved.”
The public comment period ended on April 25, and ICANN’s Board may vote on the proposals as soon as the end of this month.
In response to the consultation, four of the GNSO constituencies (without the registries and registrars) together with ICANN’s At-Large Advisory Committee, submitted an alternative Joint Users Proposal, which proposed a tri-partite approach consisting of three equal groups representing contracted parties, commercial interests and public interests. INTA’s Internet Committee supports this proposal.
ICANN’s Board meets on May 29, when it is likely to consider the rival proposals for the GNSO structure, although a decision may not be made then. ICANN’s next public Meeting is to be held in Paris from June 22 to 26. Members of the IP community who are concerned about the proposals can attend that Meeting, and also contact ICANN directly by emailing policy-staff@icann.org
