New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Group 'Just Starting' Substantive Work, Co-Chair Says
ICANN's New Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (PDP) Working Group is “really just starting to get into the meat of our work,” said working group co-Chairman Jeff Neuman during a session Tuesday at ICANN's Helsinki meeting.…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
ICANN's Generic Names Supporting Organization Council initiated the PDP after the nonprofit released a report in December urging additional policy development on the gTLD program before any future rounds of new gTLD rollouts (see 1606240055). The working group is deciding what changes could be made to the gTLD rollout process “to clarify what happened” during the original rollout period, Neuman said Tuesday. “We can amend that process, we can override that process, we can develop new policy recommendations or we can supplement and develop new policy guidance.” The working group is exploring whether the new GTLD applicant guidebook used in the initial rollout “is the appropriate approach” for future rollout rounds, Neuman said. The group will decide whether the guidelines should be revised or if there should be different guidebooks for different types of TLDs, he said. The working group also will monitor legal and regulatory issues for the new gTLD program, including whether changes are needed to the base registry agreement, Neuman said. The group is monitoring work in other working groups that may affect its recommendations, including working groups on the use of country and territory names as TLDs and secondary-level domains, Neuman said.