ICANN publishes five-year plan
ICANN is seeking to “clarify” its relationship with IP rights as part of a draft five-year plan, published on Tuesday.
The working draft outlines ICANN’s vision as an independent organisation “trusted” to coordinate the Internet’s domain name system.
To help meet this vision, ICANN is prioritising five areas in which it wants to succeed, including developing a “world class public responsibility framework” and “technical and operational excellence”.
The fifth area – defining ICANN’s role in the “Internet governance ecosystem” – requires an assessment of IP rights, ICANN said.
According to the draft plan, ICANN seeks to clarify its role “with respect to the coordination of the global Internet’s systems of unique identifiers to ensure we keep pace with an evolving Internet ecosystem, including in key areas relating to: consumers, security, compliance/regulatory, public interest, business innovation, and intellectual property rights.”
The plan is based on brainstorming by ICANN staff between April and September 2013, but the organisation is seeking public input. A public comment period is open until January 31, 2014.
Elsewhere in the plan, ICANN says that by 2019 there will be 63 percent of the world using the Internet, compared with 35 percent now.
