Reconsideration Request 00-16 Received: 24 November 2000

Note: The following letter was received by ICANN's General Counsel in hard copy, without being sent in electronic form to reconsider@icann.org. The recosideration policy states: "Requests for review or reconsideration must be submitted by email to reconsider@icann.org. " Failure to follow the policy's requirements regarding the manner of submission of requests can (and in this case did) result in delays in their processing. Persons submitting reconsideration requests should also ensure they are clearly labelled as such. (Also, those requesting reconsideration should take care not to include designations of confidentiality where none are intended. In this case, additional delay was entailed in obtaining the sender's permission to post this letter.)

The sender of the letter has requested that it be treated as a request for reconsideration under ICANN's reconsideration policy. Accordingly, the General Counsel has referred this letter to the reconsideration committee for such treatment as it deems appropriate.

24 November 2000

Mr. Louis Touton
General Counsel
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
United States of America

By Fax & Overnight Courier

Dear Mr. Touton

Telnic Limited's ("Telnic") ".TEL" top level domain ("TLD") application (the "Telnic Application")

Thank you so much for your time last week to discuss the Telnic Application. I was very pleased that you supported publicly the removal of the Telnic Application from the telephony-related group and I would like to thank you for your team's acknowledgement of the strength of the Telnic Application.

However, as you are aware from our presentation given to the Board of Directors of ICANN (the "Board") on Wednesday 15 November 2000, it is the view of the Directors of Telnic that there is no justifiable reason why the issuance of the .TEL TLD to Telnic was withheld. In light of this, I would be grateful if you could please respond to the following issues below:

• I understand that during its public deliberations the Board recessed (as seen in the video found at the http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/la2000/archive/ site) to consider in private your request that the Telnic Application should be removed from the telephony-related group and considered separately. It would be helpful for me to know the substance of your discussions with the Board so that I can address ICANN's concerns more fully; is it possible to receive a copy of any minutes of this recess?
• I would like to understand the legal basis upon which ICANN based its decision to not issue the .TEL TLD to Telnic and also, why the Telnic Application was dealt with in the same way as the other telephony-related applications when it is clear that the Telnic Application is fundamentally different to those other applications.
• I would also be grateful if you could provide me with details of the basis upon which ICANN's staff drew the conclusions it did in respect of the Telnic Application as set out in the ICANN Staff Report relating to the Telnic Application.
• Could you please also indicate whether and to what extent ICANN discussed with the ITU (either directly or indirectly through the IETF), prior to 2 October 2000, the possible issuance or non-issuance of any new telephony-related TLDs including the E.164 numbering scheme. Is it possible to receive copies of any documentation that records the content of any such discussions?
• I also recall that both you and Vint Cerf suggested during discussions with Telnic's Board members, that Telnic implement its .TEL concept independently of ICANN, with the possibility of migrating to the ICANN structure in the future. I would be most grateful therefore, if you could please confirm that any future .TEL application filed by Telnic with ICANN will not be prejudiced, if Telnic decides to adopt this strategy.
• In the event that Telnic submits a new .TEL TLD application with ICANN in the next round of applications, I would be grateful if you could confirm that Telnic's Application will be treated more favourably than any other telephony-related TLD application (which is similar to Telnic's Application) on the basis that Telnic has disclosed publicly, at ICANN's request, its .TEL concept and its intellectual property rights thereby exposing itself to the risk of possible infringement of its intellectual property rights by third parties.
• I would very much appreciate a formal response to these issues and to Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's legal memorandum posted on ICANN's website on 14 November 2000.

ICANN has stated that all of the telephony-related applications were strong and accordingly, this includes the Telnic Application. Nonetheless, the .TEL TLD was not issued by ICANN presumably following the recommendations of the ITU. For the reasons outlined in Squire, Sanders & Dempsey's legal memorandum, I believe that the arguments raised by the ITU were not relevant to the Telnic Application and should not have been used to prevent the issuance of the .TEL TLD to Telnic. In light of this, the Directors of Telnic request ICANN to reconsider its decision not to issue the .TEL TLD at this time.

If, after reconsidering its position, ICANN is still not prepared to issue the .TEL TLD to Telnic at this time, I would be grateful for the opportunity to discuss with you ways in which Telnic can satisfy ICANN's reservations and expedite the process of such issuance. It is my strong view that the Telnic Application is a materially different proposition to the other telephony-related applications and should be considered on its own merits. I would be grateful therefore, to receive a response to this letter by close of business on Friday 1 December 2000. Furthermore, as I will be in the United States from Thursday 7 December 2000, I would be happy to arrange a meeting with you to further discuss the Telnic Application and your response to this letter.

Once again, many thanks for your support and assistance and I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

With kind personal regards,

Yours sincerely,

Cathy B Horton