Fadi Chehade’s Report on New gTLD Milestones and Deadlines
Mr. Chehade is energized to get the show on the road. He states, “We are on track. We are on target with our deadlines, and the program is under firm control.”
He was much more emphatic and positive in this message. The great news is that this week they will be releasing the first batch of evaluations in the order of the prioritization draw! So this means that new IDN TLDs are in the first stages of moving forward. He even went so far as to say that they are on track to get all evaluations done by August. Wow!
Trademarks should begin moving forward to register their trademarks with the trademark clearinghouse on March 26th.
They are releasing comments on the “strawman” comments about protections for trademarks. Some protections will move forward; some won’t.
He called it a “massive expansion of the DNS”. He is encouraging the industry to continue working and to find agreement on how to manage the process. He feels that the registrar team has done remarkably in negotiating the registry / registrar agreements.
He also introduced the “R3”, a Registrants Rights and Responsibilities Document. This is a first. There is also an agreement on a compliance regime that ensures that there are steps built into the process of how ICANN manages registrar relationships and registrar compliance. He feels there is solid ground for expansion and growth of the DNS now.
He warned that registrars and ICANN must come together if we are to meet the deadlines. He is encouraging registrars to work together and find common ground with ICANN and other stakeholders.
He concluded saying that “the excitement of new gTLDs is global and upon us” and emphasized a bottom up approach.
This is very positive news for the industry.
