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<h2 class="posttitle"> Brand Owners Seek Their Own ICANN
Constituency Group </h2>
<small>Published on 9 April 2013 @ 4:00 pm</small>
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<p>Intellectual Property Watch</p>
<p>By Monika Ermert for <em>Intellectual Property Watch</em></p>
<p>Brand owners that have applied with the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for their brand’s top level
domain (TLD) are seeking to create their own constituency group.</p>
<p>A third of the names applied for in the ongoing application
process are brand TLDs, trademark lawyer Phil Sheppard said during
a meeting with ICANN’s government constituency group, called the
Government Advisory Committee (GAC).</p>
<p>The brand owners would like to get their own registry model,
based on their special business model. As all second-level domains
would be under the control of the brand owner, they hope for a
more lightweight model, with a reduced set of obligations, because
they are not open registries and therefore less prone to fraud.</p>
<p>They also want priority when it comes to negotiating registry
contracts with ICANN. Many things in the ICANN registry contract
would be superfluous for brand TLDs.</p>
<p>“We need a new registry agreement,” said Jay Scott Eveans, head
of Global Brand Domains & Copyright at Yahoo! Inc. The Brand
Registry Constituency would allow brand owners to have joint
contract negotiations with ICANN.</p>
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