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Call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for Public Interest Commitment Dispute Resolution Procedure (PICDRP) Standing Panel Members

19 December 2013

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is seeking expressions of interest to serve on the PICDRP Standing Panel.

Background

  1. As part of the New gTLD Program, ICANN has put in place the Public Interest Commitment Dispute Resolution Procedure [PDF, 208 KB] ("PICDRP") to address reports of a Registry Operator's non-compliance with one or more of the public interest commitments included in Specification 11 of its Registry Agreement with ICANN.

  2. During the compliance review and investigation process for a report submitted to ICANN under the PICDRP, ICANN may call upon the Standing Panel to review one or more reports in order to evaluate whether the Registry Operator was or was not in compliance with Specification 11 of the Registry Agreement.

Composition of Standing Panel

  1. The Standing Panel shall consist of a minimum of three members, with more members to be added as deemed necessary. Not all members of the Standing Panel are necessary to the consideration of each report referred by ICANN.

  2. The Standing Panel members should have diversity in geographic and cultural representation. Diversity of experience will be considered in completing the composition of the Panel.

Proposed Qualifications of Standing Panel Members

  1. In consideration of the scope and areas of expertise required, that Standing Panel members, in the aggregate, should have expertise and significant knowledge in the following (or similar) aspects/areas.

    1. Online content
    2. Public policy
    3. Trademark protection
    4. International dispute resolution
    5. Cultural studies
    6. Judicial and/or legal experience
    7. DNS technical experience
    8. Regulatory background
    9. Sociological research experience
    10. Contract interpretation experience
    11. Licensing experience
    12. Cybersecurity

  2. Panel members should have demonstrated recognition of expertise and knowledge through high-level positions, peer group recognition, and/or history of publications/presentations on relevant topics.

Conflict of Interests

All Panel members must be independent from ICANN (i.e., not an ICANN employee; not a member of any ICANN Sponsoring Organization or Advisory Committee; not affiliated with any registrar or registry holding a contract with ICANN). Further, all Panel members must adhere to ICANN's conflicts of interest policy and annually complete a Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Form.

Time Commitment

  1. To keep the costs and burdens of evaluation as low as possible, absent exceptional circumstances, the Standing Panel is expected to conduct its proceedings by email, by telephone and otherwise via the Internet.

  2. It is anticipated that the Standing Panel may start to have matters referred to it by ICANN within one month of the Panel formation. The members of the Standing Panel will be required to review reference and training materials prior to receiving matters such that the Panel members understand the Public Interest Commitments Dispute Resolution Process. For each matter referred, the Standing Panel will be expected to evaluate compliance by the Registry Operator and report its evaluation results to ICANN. The Standing Panel is expected to deliver its evaluation results to ICANN within 15 days of reference by ICANN.

  3. At present it is unclear how many matters will be referred to any given Standing Panel member; over time this may become more predictable based on the nature and number of the reports submitted.

Fees for Service on Standing Panel

Fees to be determined based on, among other things, proposals received.

Terms of Standing Panel Member

For the purpose of continuity and consistency, the terms of Standing Panel members will be staggered. For a start, the terms of two of the Standing Panel member shall be two (2) years and the term of the third member shall be one (1) year. Subsequent terms of new members and renewal of terms shall be two (2) years and members, with agreement from ICANN, are allowed to renew for a maximum of two (2) terms.

Timing

It is anticipated that the Standing Panel membership will be announced by end of January or early February 2014.

Expressions of Interest

Expressions of Interest, which will be maintained as confidential, should be sent to PICDRP-SP-EOI@icann.org no later than 20 January 2014. Respondents are urged to read the PICDRP [PDF, 208 KB] prior to submitting an Expression of Interest.