ICANN Publishes Instructions for Governments to Request Objection Funding

ICANN has released instructions and a request form for eligible governmental entities to request funding for filing objections. The Government Objection Funding Instructions provides the following:

• Governmental entity eligibility criteria;
• Instructions to complete the objection funding request form; and
• Summary of the fund disbursement process

Per the Applicant Guidebook, ICANN guarantees that a minimum of one objection per government will be fully funded by ICANN for approved requests. Governments requesting financial support must submit their applications to newgtld@icann.org no later than 11 March 2013.  The objection filing period closes on 13 March 2013 at 11:59 UTC.

Download the Objection Funding Request Form [DOCX, 159 KB].

Eligibility Criteria:
For purposes of determining whether a governmental entity is eligible for objection funding, ICANN will use the ISO 3166-1 standard 2-Letter Country/Territory code (http://www.iso.org/iso/country_names_and_code_elements) as well as the published list of GAC Representatives (https://gacweb.icann.org/display/gacweb/GAC+Representatives).

Consistent with the Applicant Guidebook, funding from ICANN for objection filling fees, as well as for advance payment of costs, is available to eligible governmental entities in the amount of USD 50,000 with the guarantee that a minimum of one objection per government will be fully funded by ICANN where requested. When completing the objection funding request form, the requestor may only select one ground for objection. If an eligible governmental entity chooses to apply for multiple funding requests (i.e., submits multiple objection funding request forms), ICANN will process the requests in the order they are received. Once a requestor receives an objection funding approval from ICANN, all subsequent funding requests will be automatically rejected.

Funding available from ICANN will cover the objector filing fees and advance payment costs payable to the Dispute Resolution Service Provider (DRSP), which ICANN will pay directly to the DRSP. This funding does not cover other costs, such as fees for legal advice. In the event that the ICANN-funded objector is determined to be the prevailing party by the DRSP, ICANN will receive the refund from the DRSP for all funds advanced to the DRSP by ICANN.

ICANN reserves the right to contact the identified government entity listed in the funding request form and/or other relevant government parties.

Learn more about objection and dispute resolution.