ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee request for comments
WIPO Recommendations

On 21 February 2003, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) sent to ICANN a letter describing two decisions of WIPO concerning recommendations about domain names that are similar to the names and acronyms of International Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) and country names. WIPO member states recommended that the names and acronyms of IGOs and country names (being one particular type of geographical identifier) should be protected against abusive registration as domain names, and requested that these recommendations be transmitted to ICANN.

In response to the WIPO letter, on 12 March 2003, the ICANN Board invited all ICANN Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees (including the ALAC) 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.

Comments to the forum are requested by 9 May 2003.

Links to reports and other information are listed below.

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• ICANN General Counsel's Briefing Concerning Policy-Development Process on WIPO-2 Recommendations (1 June 2003)
• ICANN Board resolution on WIPO-2 Recommendations (2 June 2003)
• ALAC Statement on WIPO Recommendations Regarding IGOs and Country Names (29 April 2003)
• Letter from Franics Gurry, WIPO, to Vint Cerf and Stuart Lynn (21 February 2003)