This section contains progress updates on various Program activities and lists all the relevant announcements from the ICANN home page.

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General Program Updates

• Version 4 of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, plus additional documents posted in Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian and Arabic for public comment. Deadline August 23rd. until 21 of July, 2010. Access the public forum here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/comments-4-en.htm. All new supporting documents are listed here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/explanatory-memoranda-4-en.htm.

• Read the newly posted Summaries & Analyses. These documents are related to the recently closed public comment period and cover topics such as: trademark & community protections, potential for malicious conduct, IDN issues and registry operations & agreement.

• During the ICANN Nairobi Meeting in March 2010, ICANN Board of Directors adopted Resolution 20 that requests "stakeholders to work through their SOs and ACs, and form a Working Group to develop a sustainable approach to providing support to applicants requiring assistance in applying for and operating new gTLDs." Numerous stakeholders had, on various occasions, expressed concern about the cost of applying for new gTLDs, and suggested that these costs might hinder applicants requiring assistance, especially those from developing countries. The Joint SO/AC Working Group on New gTLD Applicant Support was formed to evaluate and propose recommendations regarding specific support to new gTLD applicants in justified cases.

• Operational Readiness: Phase 2 of 3 review and selection process of independent evaluators has been completed. ICANN met the candidate's leadership and core team members to evaluate in detail the candidate's approach, experience, technical competency, commitment, and proposed costing model. The next and final phase will select primary and back up Evaluation Panelists providers and notify the Board of final selections. The retention of the Evaluation Panelist is expected to occur in 2010 and names of the selected evaluation panelists will be published at that time. For details, see here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/tenders-eoi-en.htm.

• Following on from the Board decision in Nairobi that was in favor of Vertical Integration, ICANN has implemented and integrated the resolution into the Draft Applicant Guidebook, Version 4. Simultaneously, the GNSO is doing its own policy work on the issue of Vertical Integration and once complete and approved, these recommendations would then replace the current provisions.

• Trademark Protection: Version 4 of the Draft Applicant Guidebook has incorporated several trademark protections, including improvements to the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), the Trademark Clearinghouse (TM Clearinghouse), and the Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Proposal (PDDRP). There are also new versions of Rights Protection measures that had been revised based on public comment. These near final versions are being posted for additional public comment prior to being completed and implemented. See: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/explanatory-memoranda-4-en.htm.

• Malicious Conduct:

• Strategy Proposal - gTLD Zone File Access for the Future - This published concept paper is the result of the Zone File Access Advisory Group's study of benefits and methods to effectively enhance access to zone file information in anticipation of an environment with many gTLDs. See document here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/explanatory-memoranda-4-en.htm.

• High Security Top-Level Domain Advisory Group Report - The Development Snapshot is a result of the High Security Top-Level Domain Advisory Group's continued development of a concept paper that outlines a structured approach to improve Internet community's trust and to improve the overall security of the domains registered within Top-Level Domains that volunteer to participate in the Program. The Development Snapshot represents a point in time update on the development of key areas of the original concept. Report will be available soon.

• Community and Staff continue to work on analyzing the Root Zone and Economic/Market impact. More details on these two issues will be available soon.