[council] GNSO Comment on WIPO-2 Recommendations

[Louis Touton <touton@icann.org>]

To the GNSO Council:

Item #7 on the agenda for the GNSO Council's 17 April 2003 meeting is
"Discussion on WIPO recommendations regarding names and acronyms of
International Intergovernmental Organisations".
<http://gnso.icann.org/dnso/notes/20030417.GNSOteleconf-agenda.html>

As noted in the agenda, on 21 February 2003, the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) sent to ICANN a letter (copy attached)
describing two decisions of WIPO concerning recommendations about the
names and acronyms of International Intergovernmental Organizations and
about country names, which WIPO member states requested be transmitted
to ICANN.

On 12 March 2003, the ICANN Board invited all ICANN Supporting
Organizations (including the GNSO) and Advisory Committees to provide,
no later than 12 May 2003, any comments that they may formulate,
according to their processes, concerning the matters discussed in the
WIPO letter.

As also noted in your agenda materials, the Governmental Advisory
Committee (GAC) has already provided its comments.  They may be seen in
the GAC Communique at
<http://www.icann.org/committees/gac/communique-25mar03.htm#4>.

Please note that comments at this stage are due by 12 May 2003.  In
connection with its 12 March 2003 resolutions, the Board affirmed its
belief that, once these comments are received, a policy-development
process should be initiated in the GNSO concerning issues discussed in
the WIPO letter.  (The selection of the GNSO as the responsible
policy-development organization reflects the fact that the WIPO
recommendations apply in gTLDs, but not ccTLDs.)

Any comments of the GNSO Council on this topic should be transmitted to
me as ICANN Secretary.  Thank you for your attention.

Best regards,

Louis Touton
Secretary

wipo-to-icann-21feb03.pdf