ICANN
litigation. Tis is something that we don’t know right now. We will know perhaps a few years from now. We have some TLDs that we’ve been dealing with for years, since they were granted, and we’re still dealing with them. So it’s very hard to tell when we will feel confident. It’s only common sense that aſter the programme is done and we’ve decided on all the applications, every year that passes aſter that, should become more predictable. Right now it’s too early to give a target on that.
Where is the money now?
Our goal is to preserve capital to spend on the new gTLD costs. We put it in three different bank accounts that are 100 percent insured. If this insurance doesn’t get extended it will expire at the end of this calendar year, and we’re looking at ways to manage it better and to reduce the risk by breaking it up into multiple funds, or similar.
Reports suggest that some users are pursuing private auction models to settle contested string disputes. What do you make of private auctions?
I do not condone it or reject it. Tere is no mechanism in the application process that prevents them from doing that, but from my perspective it’s their decision to make.
Given the possible importance of first- mover advantage, do you have a plan for when the second round of new applications will begin?
We haven’t set a target, but in the applicant guidebook there is a period of assessment of the current round provided for. Once that is done and everything looks positive, we will start on the second round. We have learned from everything that has been done in this round. We don’t expect there will be drastic changes, so it won’t be very difficult to redo what we have done. Once we agree that the first round is positive and we need to open it up for a second round, it will be shortly aſter.
Are you happy with the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) process as currently envisaged?
I think we’re working with the community on this. Te URS as it was set up actually came out to be a very expensive proposition. Te idea was that it should be less costly than the Uniform Domain- Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), but once it was defined it came out nearly as expensive as the UDRP. We’re working with the community on getting a subset of things that have to be done in order to make the URS more affordable, and if these conditions aren’t met then you can go into the UDRP
process and leverage out what you spend on the URS to the UDRP, so you’re not paying twice.
Some people have suggested that in the long term, ICANN won’t have the capacity, expertise or neutrality to continue in its role. How do you see its role developing?
I think that Fadi Chehadé, the CEO, has set out a plan for the next three years on what we want to do, starting from operational excellence to improving our engagement with everybody involved in the Internet. Tere has been a lot of emphasis on this. We are on our way to take ICANN to the next level. Any time you take a look at an organisation, it will be set up at the right level to meet the needs of today—it will not be much bigger or much more capable than it needs to be, otherwise it would not be efficient.
In the future, as the demand for our services grows and our capabilities are challenged, we will meet that challenge and we’ve proven that over the last 13 years we’ve been in business. It’s actually just some naysayers saying that ICANN cannot do this. It has demonstrated that it has met all the challenges put in front of it so far.
* Tis interview was conducted before recent developments on the Trademark Clearinghouse as described on page 11.
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