Re: [wg-c] voting on TLDs

["Milton Mueller" <mueller@syr.edu>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin J. Connolly"

> Nope.  The #1 reason why the GTLD-MOU tanked was opposition from the
> trademark community.

Nope. The #1 reason was the US government's lack of...er....comfort at the
role of the ITU. ICANN was created primarily to avoid having to put these
matters in the hands of intergovernmental organizations such as ITU.

The #2 reason was the refusal of the USG to allow a government contractor
such as IANA to grab control of valuable taxpayer-funded assets without any
formal authorization.

The trademark theory is an odd one, given the participation of WIPO and INTA
in the gTLD-MoU, and the fact that gTLD-MoU gave them more power and more
representation than they have under ICANN.

Trademark interests are one of many stakeholders in the name space. They
have gotten almost everything they wanted out of ICANN and it's time for
some other groups to have their needs considered.

--MM