[registrars] Meeting this AM with Neulevel - notes and next steps.

[Rob Hall <rob@momentous.ca>]

I had the pleasure of meeting with 3 Neulevel people this morning.  They 
flew in this AM to get together to hear our concerns.  I also took the 
initiative to invite Jonathan Cohen to the meeting.

After a long discussion, we were able to make our views very clear.  We 
asked for the following from them. They agreed to get back to us by Friday 
morning.

1)  That Neulevel would not interface directly with registrants or end 
users and would interface ONLY with ICANN accredited registrars (not 
"Neulevel approved trademark service providers") for any service, including 
their "IP Claim Service".

2)  That Neulevel would not insist on setting the retail pricing and 
margins for registrars.

3) That Neulevel would not publish and market to end users a registrars 
costs (other than required by ICANN) (ie: not publish registrar costs 
prominently on their website).

4) That Neulevel would never offer registrar services to the public.

The other argument to be made is one of timing.  Prior to ANY registrar 
being able to register either IP claims or domains, the following must happen:

1)  The .biz registry agreements must be signed by ICANN
2)  ICANN approved registrars must be accredited by ICANN to sell .biz
3)  These registrars must then sign agreements with the .biz registry
4)  These registrars must then be given the interface specs and integrate 
them into our systems.

This must all happen before May 14th, when Neulevel starts taking IP 
claims.  Frankly, it just won't happen in 7 business days.  Neulevel's 
plans are to start anyway, even if
step one hasn't been completed.  We told them that we felt that this was 
unacceptable and that they should be dealing only with Registrars, and 
never directly with end users.

The timing on this is tight.  My understanding is that if no ICANN board 
member objects, the contracts can be signed by the ICANN President 7 days 
after posting.  This is expected to be tomorrow or Friday.

I have also started working with a few registrars on a letter to the ICANN 
board expressing our concerns and asking them to look into this further 
(and not sign the contracts this week).  I hope we will not have to send it.

Don't get me wrong.  We are all for .biz and getting moving, but NOT at the 
expense of registrars.

Since that meeting, Neulevel's new CEO has called me and asked for an 
urgent meeting.  I have a call with him for 6:30 tonight.  I hope to be 
able to report more back then.



Rob.


--
Rob Hall                                voice  (613) 768-5100
President                                  fax  (613) 820-0777
Momentous.ca Corp.		
rob@momentous.ca                      www.momentous.ca



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