David Weslow Discusses Proposal to Limit a New gTLD to U.S. Customers

David E. Weslow, a partner in Wiley Rein’s Intellectual Property Practice, was quoted by the World Intellectual Property Review in an October 31 article about how the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) should respond to a proposal to limit a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) for .LLP to United States customers.

Critics of one gTLD applicant’s plan to restrict the .LLP extension are urging ICANN to rule whether such an action would violate the organization’s gTLD registry agreement.  The applicant in question, Dot Registry, is one of three applicants, along with My LLP and Google, vying for the rights to .LLP.

It is not yet clear how ICANN will interpret applicable provisions within the gTLD registry contract, and ICANN must first wrestle with the extent to which new gTLDs’ restrictive eligibility plans meet the contractual requirements, Mr. Weslow said.

The regulation “requires the registry follow ‘general principles of openness and non-discrimination by establishing, publishing and adhering to clear registration policies,’” Mr. Weslow said.  He further added that how national and local governments fall on the issue will likely guide ICANN in the debate.