Re[2]: [wg-c] Re: IP/TM Concerns & New GTLDs

["Kevin J. Connolly" <CONNOLLK@rspab.com>]

This would be funny if it weren't such a waste of bandwidth.

The last round of the DN wars went to the opponents of TLD expansion.  Lots of people say it was due to a "lack of legitimacy" or "failure to heed the voice of the Internet Community," but those were just buzzwords foisted by the opponents of TLD expansion.  The expansion was put down by a very well orchestrated PR campaign that enlisted the support of the IP/TM community.  And NSI.  Some people even think that the whole foofarah was orchestrated by NSI.  Certainly there's little doubt but that NSI learned by the experience.

This time, the IP/TM community is not yet galvanized in opposition to TLD expansion.  All we need to do to keep it this way is to avoid policy decisions like "we're rolling out 150 new gTLDs for every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants one."  In other words, the chorus needs to be "gentle, incremental expansion of the TLD name space accompanied by development of fair and economical dispute resolution mechanisms."

Either the WGs can develop methods for doing things this way, or we can end up being disregarded by the Board of ICANN.  Those of us who take this process seriously should keep in mind that setting up a report which the ICANN Board will have to disregard simply gives the diehard opponents of expansion (the radical TM community + NSI) convenient handles for a new PR campaign.

KJC

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