The 62nd international meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) took place this past week, from June 25-28, 2018, in Panama City, Panama. Several members of Winterfeldt IP Group attended ICANN 62.
ICANN 62, the second of three global meetings that will take place in 2018, was framed as a policy forum meeting, the shortest of ICANN’s three rotating meeting styles. The policy forum format focuses on cross-community collaboration, with a much more limited number of meetings of individual constituencies and stakeholder groups. The Panama City meeting agenda included a number of working group sessions, presentations on high-interest topics, and cross-community panels, with a goal of sharing viewpoints from different facets of the stakeholder community. The GNSO Council (the body that develops global domain name policy) and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the body of over 175 country and territory representatives that advises the ICANN Board, also held sessions throughout the week.
While many sessions earlier in the week had offered a primary focus on WHOIS/GDPR (European data protection regulation) issues, Thursday’s sessions in Panama City covered a greater variety of topics. In addition to a smaller number of GDPR-related meetings, two sessions of the Review of Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs Working Group (RPM WG) were held, along with a session for the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SUB PRO) Working Group. ICANN also presented a cross-community session on geographic names at the top level. Finally, returning to topics affected by GDPR, ICANN closed the meeting with a high interest session on the Registration Directory Services (RDS) / WHOIS 2 Review. The day offered a lighter schedule for the GNSO, which held its traditional brief wrap-up session, and the GAC, which issued its ICANN 62 Communiqué earlier in the day.
Please reach out to us at internet@winterfeldt.law if you are interested in receiving a summary and analysis of key takeaways from the select sessions listed above, as presented on June 28 in Panama City, or for support on any other ICANN-related matters.
