1999-05-27 - WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION RECOMMENDATIONS

WHEREAS, in the White Paper the U.S. Government called on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to develop recommendations regarding trademark disputes concerning domain names;

WHEREAS, on April 30, 1999, WIPO submitted a report to the ICANN Board containing numerous recommendations that resulted from an extensive consultative process;

WHEREAS, the first ICANN-accredited registrars (testbed registrars), are preparing to introduce competition in the provision of domain registration services and accordingly are required soon to implement dispute resolution policies;

RESOLVED (Resolution 99.41), the ICANN Board commends the WIPO on its report, which the ICANN Board finds represents a substantial and positive contribution to the analysis and discussion of issues concerning the relationship between the domain-name system and intellectual property rights;

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.42), the ICANN Board notes that most of the recommendations in Chapter 2 of the WIPO report relating to best practices for registrars are closely similar to many of the elements of the Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy adopted by the Board on March 4, 1999 and that the provisions of that policy are scheduled for review by the Board in the first half of 2000;

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.43), the ICANN Board endorses the principle that a uniform dispute resolution policy should be adopted for Registrars in the .com, .net, and .org Top-Level Domains (TLDs);

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.44), the ICANN Board encourages the testbed registrars to work together to formulate a model dispute resolution policy for voluntary adoption and directs the President to provide information and similar assistance to the testbed registrars in this regard;

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.45), the ICANN Board refers the recommendations in Chapter 3 of the WIPO report (with associated annexes) to the ICANN Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) for recommendations the DNSO, to be submitted to the ICANN Board by July 31, 1999;

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.46), the ICANN Board requests that by July 31, 1999 the DNSO submit to the Board any other recommendations the DNSO may have concerning a uniform dispute resolution policy for registrars in the .com, .net, and .org TLDs;

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.47), the ICANN Board requests all persons desiring to make written comments concerning a uniform dispute resolution policy for registrars in the .com, .net, and .org TLDs to submit those comments by August 20, 1999, in advance of the Board s meeting scheduled for August 24-26, 1999 in Santiago, at which time Board action on such a policy is hereby scheduled; and

FURTHER RESOLVED (Resolution 99.48), the ICANN Board refers the recommendations in Chapters 4 and 5 (with associated annexes) of the WIPO report to the ICANN DNSO for recommendations on the topics of those chapters, to be submitted to the ICANN Board at the earliest practicable time after the Board s meeting scheduled for August 24-26, 1999 in Santiago.