[icann-nominations] Statement of Acceptance
1. Full Name of the Nominee: Jonathan C. Cohen 2. E-mail address of the Nominee: <jcohen@shapirocohen.com> 3. Organization I work for: Shapiro, Cohen Group of Intellectual Property Practices, <www.shapirocohen.com> 4. Snail-mail address: 112 Kent Street, Suite 2001, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5P2, Canada 5. The region that includes the country of which I am a citizen: North America 6. The region that includes the country in which I reside: North America 7. A clear statement of acceptance of the nomination: I accept the nomination for my election to the ICANN Board that was kindly submitted by Mr. Mike Palage. 8. If you are a Member of the Names Council, state intention to resign from the Names Council if elected to the ICANN Board: not applicable 9. Curriculum Vitae (no more than 500 words long): I am the Senior, Managing Partner of the Shapiro, Cohen Group of Intellectual Property Practices, in Ottawa, Canada. I have practised in all areas of intellectual property law since 1971, and have lectured and written extensively in Canada and internationally on various aspects of trade-mark law, including domain name issues. I am actively involved in numerous national and international IP organizations, including FICPI, AIPPI, AIPLA, INTA, IPIC, IPBA, LES, MARQUES, APLA, CBA, and IBA, which collectively represent the interests of all categories of intellectual property stakeholders, including small and large businesses, and individuals. I have taken an active role in Internet governance reform and the ICANN formation process from the start, beginning with the WIPO-IAHC meetings in Geneva in 1997, through the formation of the DNSO, and ultimately the Intellectual Property Constituency, where I served as the IPC’s first President and Names Council representative until my election to the ICANN Board. I also co-chaired Working Groups A and B, and worked on the Registrars’ Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. As a member of the ICANN Board, I have participated in all Board meetings and teleconferences (with one exeption when I was on a plane in transit from Asia), I have attended virtually all constituency meetings and have spoken with members of all constituencies to understand their concerns and put them before the Board. I am a member of the Executive Search Committee, and have been an informal part of ICANN's outreach efforts, lecturing around the world - in South Africa, India, Thailand, Israel, Japan, Korea, Egypt, and many European countries - about the ICANN process, trying to ensure that lines of communication and information between potential participants and the existing ICANN community remain open. The many opportunities I have had to speak internationally about the ICANN process include the John Marshall Law School (Chicago), the Asian Patent Attorneys Association Forum (New Delhi), the United Nations Forum on e-Commerce for Transition Economies (Geneva), and C@iNet 2000 (Cairo). In addition to my ICANN duties, I am also involved in the reform of Canada's top level domain: I worked on the initial Committee of Experts organized to advise the Canadian government on reform of .ca, and was subsequently elected to the Board of Directors of CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority), the Canadian "ICANN", which will assume control of the .ca ccTLD. I am head of a CIRA Board committee responsible for revising CIRA's By-laws to ensure broad participation in the process by all relevant Canadian stakeholder constituencies. I have a wonderful, close family including three terrific children, the oldest of whom is a practising attorney in New York, three brothers and a sister in Ottawa and a fourth brother who is an actor and has lived in Hollywood for twenty years. I very much enjoy travelling and meeting people around the world. I love sports, particularly playing them (earlier in the last century, I was a college football player), movies and dining out. Generally, I thrive on new experiences and challenges. 10. A statement indicating my ideas, intentions and/or the reason why I consider I should be elected to serve on the ICANN Board (no more than 500 words): My term on the Board has been short and it has taken the better part of it to develop good working relationships with other Directors and ICANN staff, and to become familiar with issues that will face the Board in upcoming years. This initial term has provided the experience to be a good Board member over the next three years if I am re-elected for a second, final term. My experience with the DNSO, its formation, and with the NC before joining the Board has allowed me to have unique personal relationships with many of those who have participated in the ICANN process. I am encouraged by their support to believe that I can continue to play a useful role in understanding and communicating DNSO concerns and desires to the Board. I have undertaken to increase my technical understanding of the Internet, and have been fortunate to have some "private lessons" from ICANN members and others who are technical experts, so I can more actively participate in discussions and decisions about technical management of the DNS - ICANN's primary function. I have a strong interest in the globalization of the Internet and will continue to work energetically so that the challenges associated with ensuring international participation in this process and in use of the Internet, are met. I hope to work with the DNSO and the public to determine what possibilities exist to expand the UDRP, in the hope that a broader spectrum of Internet disputes will be capable of resolution online in a time frame and at a cost that makes it accessible and useful for a larger number of Internet users globally. I believe that the participation of interested parties from different countries, cultures and legal systems are essential to the development of an "enhanced" UDRP to make it a widely, if not universally, useful mechanism for Internet dispute resolution, and I will make every effort to encourage such broad international participation. I am hopeful that, if elected to a subsequent term, I can work with the Board to forge strong, cooperative links with the ccTLD community. I think it is very important that an acceptable and positive relationship amongst ICANN, the ccTLDs and the GAC be reached as soon as possible. The most important thing that I have learned from the experience of the past few years is the importance of listening to all points of view, and more particularly, to those that represent the minority. While recognizing the importance of consensus in a decision-making process, one must also guard against the tyranny of the majority. My background is law and business, but I am also a private citizen, and I have always been very concerned about censorship, privacy rights and freedom of speech - these issues are always in my mind as I approach the questions before the ICANN Board, as is the commitment to the concepts of openness, fairness and internationalization, which have been the goals and hopefully, the hallmarks, of the ICANN process to date. Shapiro Cohen
Group of Intellectual Property Practices
Ottawa, Canada
Telephone: (613)232-5300
Facsimile: (613) 563-9231
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