Translations:ICANN/170/en

As representative of the U.S. NTIA, Fiona Alexander informed the members of the Senate Committee that the agency is part of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which is actively involved in the policy development process within ICANN. She testified that the NTIA and its counterparts within the GAC provided consensus advice to ICANN during the policy development process for the new gTLD program for six years. She emphasized that the GAC developed a "scorecard" to address the different issues raised by governments, which include:

• objection procedures for governments
• procedures for the review of sensitive strings
• root zone scaling
• market and economic impacts
• registry-registrar separation
• protection of trademark rights and other intellectual property
• consumer protection issues
• post-delegation disputes with governments
• use and protection of geographic names
• legal recourse for applicants
• opportunities for stakeholders from developing countries
• law enforcement due diligence recommendations
• early warning mechanism for applicants to identify if a proposed string would raise controversies or sensitivities

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).