ICANN Announcements

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Implementation of the Consensus Policy for Protection of Certain Specific IGO and INGO Identifiers for All gTLDs

16 January 2018

LOS ANGELES – 16 January 2018 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that all ICANN generic top-level domain (gTLD) contracted parties must implement the new Consensus Policy concerning the protection of certain specific names of intergovernmental organizations (IGO) and international nongovernmental organizations (INGO) identifiers in all gTLDs. This Consensus Policy relates only to those identifiers specifically approved by the ICANN Board in April 2014 following the conclusion of a Policy Development Process conducted by the Generic Names Supporting Organization. It does not include IGO and INGO identifiers for which Board approval is still pending or for which GNSO policy work remains ongoing.

Contracted parties will have until 1 August 2018 to complete implementation of the new requirements for certain specific names of IGOs, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement (RCRC). For INGOs, the implementation period will be 12 months from the release of the INGO Claims Systems Specification which is currently under development by ICANN org.

The protections within this policy pertain to specific names of certain IGOs, INGOs, the IOC, and the RCRC, according to the recommendations adopted by the ICANN Board. The policy requires registry operators to withhold the specified names from registration for IGOs, the IOC, and the RCRC at the second-level and provides an exceptions procedure for registration. For INGOs, the policy requires claims notices at the second-level.

Additional information is available at the ICANN Generic Names Supporting Organization working group and IGO/INGO implementation review team wiki pages.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.