ICANN and the New Top-Level Domains: Feb. 25 conference at AU-WCL

ICANN and the New Top-Level Domains

American University Washington College of Law, Room NT01

Monday, February 25, 2019

1:30-5:30pm

We are in the midst of an historic expansion of internet domain names with more than 1200 new generic top-level domains (“gTLDs”) now competing with <.com>. This 5000% increase in gTLDs is the biggest change to the internet's domain naming system in thirty years (and more are coming soon!). Accompanying these new gTLDs, are new and innovative--but little known--IP rights protection mechanisms. These developments could have a profound impact on the rights of IP owners, domain name registrants, and the public, and on the architecture of the internet.

1:30 Welcome, Christine Haight Farley, American University Washington College of Law

1:40 Trademark Protections in the New gTLDs

Brian Beckham, WIPO (invited)

Michael Karanicolas, University of Toronto

Brian King, MarkMonitor (invited)

Rebecca Tushnet, Harvard Law School

Brian Winterfeldt, Winterfeldt IP Group (invited)

Mary Wong, ICANN (invited)

3:00 Break

3:15 “Walled Gardens:” Should gTLDs Become Private Platforms?

Becky Burr, ICANN Board & Neustar

Sarah Deutsch, ICANN Board

Kathy Kleiman, Center for Information Technology, Princeton University

Jeff Neuman, Com Laude/Valideus

Mitch Stoltz, EFF

4:30 Closing, Patricia Aufderheide, American University, School of Communication

4:35-5:30 Reception

Sponsored by American University Washington College of Law, American University School of Communications, Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property, and Internet Governance Lab