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Call for Public Comment on IANA IPR Agreements

This call for public comment seeks community input on three agreements concerning intellectual property rights (IPR) related to the IANA stewardship transition:

• IANA IPR Assignment Agreement [PDF,110KB | DOCX, 48KB]
• IANA IPR License Agreement [PDF, 463KB | DOCX, 63KB]
• IANA IPR Community Agreement [PDF, 223KB | DOCX, 53KB]

Comments are due by the deadline of September 12, 2016 at 23:59 UTC. Comments should be submitted via email toIANAIPRpubliccomment@ianacg.org. Commenters should clearly reference to which of the agreement(s) their comments apply.

The ICG web site is being used as a neutral site to host this call for public comment, but the agreements are not a product of the ICG.

Background

The Proposal to Transition the Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Functions from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to the Global Multistakeholder Community [PDF, 2.2 MB] includes a requirement for certain IPR associated with IANA to be transferred from ICANN to an entity independent of the IANA functions operator. The IPR consists of trademarks and domain names.

After discussion within the operational communities and the IETF Trust, the IETF Trust indicated that it would be willing to hold the IANA IPR. The IETF Trust is a Virginia common law trust created in 2005. Among other things, the IETF Trust was created for the purpose of acquiring, holding, maintaining and licensing certain intellectual property for the advancement of the science and technology associated with the Internet and related technology. The IETF Trust agreed to hold the IANA IPR in the service of the affected Internet operational communities.

Representatives from the names community, the numbers community, the protocol parameters community, the IETF Trust, and ICANN have drafted a set of agreements to effectuate the transfer of the IANA IPR from ICANN to the IETF Trust and to govern the relationships amongst the parties with respect to the IPR after the transfer. These agreements are:

1. IANA IPR Assignment Agreement [PDF,110KB | DOCX, 48KB]. This agreement transfers the IPR from ICANN to the IETF Trust.
2. IANA IPR License Agreement [PDF, 463KB | DOCX, 63KB]. This agreement allows for the IANA functions operator to use the IPR. The document available for public comment is a basic form that will be used to generate three license agreements, one each for the names, numbers, and protocol parameters IANA services. Items highlighted in yellow will vary by agreement and will be completed once the License Agreement is split into three. In each case the licensee is ICANN, with the ability established for ICANN to sublicense to PTI.
3. IANA IPR Community Agreement [PDF, 223KB | DOCX, 53KB]. This agreement explains the rights and obligations of the IETF Trust and each operational community as regards the IPR.

The IETF Trust, the operational communities, and ICANN hereby solicit feedback as to whether the draft agreements address the needs of the affected communities.