ICANN Committed to Enforcing Domain Registry Contracts, CEO Tells Entertainment Coalition

ICANN CEO Göran Marby assured the Coalition for Online Accountability that his organization is "fully committed" to vigorously enforcing its contracts with domain name registries after the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, including provisions to protect IP rights and country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). COA, which represents Disney, MPAA and five other top entertainment industry entities, raised concerns last month in letters to Marby and the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees about how ICANN's IANA transition plans would affect the nonprofit's enforcement of contracts (see 1606280062). IP owners will continue to have multiple mechanisms available for enforcing their rights post-transition, including the Public Interest Commitments Dispute Resolution Procedure, Marby said Thursday in a letter. COA's representation to the House and Senate Judiciary leaders of ICANN's process for delegating ccTLDs "misstates NTIA's current role, and reflects a common misunderstanding among various parties in the community," Marby said. "NTIA's role is largely clerical, and does not conduct a substantive review to approve redelegations." The agency "has always concluded that ICANN followed its verification/processing procedures appropriately, and NTIA has never failed to authorize a redelegation request (or other change request for that matter)," he said.