The ALAC is very concerned with the apparent lack of action related to the URS. The URS has been described as one of the mechanisms that will provide TM owners with adequate protection within the context of the new gTLDs.
ICANN has stated that potential URS providers believe that the current version of the URS is not implementable at the required costs and ICANN has budgeted $175k to address this issue with the work to be carried out by a bottom-up community effort.
To date, neither the GNSO nor the ALAC have been invited to participate.
The ALAC advises the Board to take immediate action to ensure that ICANN is seen as moving forward with the URS and that the URS is available as planned by the launch of the first new gTLD.
3 Comments
Bret Fausett
I might add the following sentence to the end: "One of the things ICANN could do to move this process forward would be to put the URS service out for competitive bid to see whether the work can be done by qualified persons in the target price range."
Evan Leibovitch
Agree with the statement and will support its endorsement by ALAC
Avri Doria
I think that while we are asking the Board to take action, it might make sense to indicate that the fact that they did not do a competitive bid essentially renders the information they have on pricing meaningless. Perhaps this will cut between the aversion to giving advice in this note and giving advice, by making a point of the fact that they really should have done a competitive bid.