<h2><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">News
Alert</span></h2>
<p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02nov09-en.htm">http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02nov09-en.htm</a></span></p>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top:15.0pt;text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">
<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center">
</span></div>
<h2 style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">.POST
Sponsorship Agreement Posted for Public Comment</span></h2>
<p style="margin-top:11.25pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:
0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">2
November 2009</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">ICANN is today posting the
.POST Sponsorship Agreement for public comment. ICANN and the Universal Postal
Union (UPU) reached an agreement in principle following a challenging yet
fruitful negotiation process. The Agreement represents a significant
accomplishment for ICANN, the UPU, and the global Internet community, as it is the
first gTLD Registry Agreement between ICANN and an Intergovernmental
Organization (IGO). "Reaching this agreement provides additional
validation of the ICANN model for fostering expansion and competition in the
domain name space," said ICANN CEO and President, Rod Beckstrom. "The
UPU has also helped mark out a path for other IGOs to sponsor their own
top-level domains." </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The UPU status as an
intergovernmental organization and specialized agency of the United Nations
presented a number of challenges when considering several typical gTLD registry
contractual provisions. The negotiation for .POST concluded with an agreement
that enables both organizations to recognize one another's traditional
autonomy, mission and core values. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The .POST Sponsorship Agreement
can be viewed at <a href="http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-agreement-02nov09-en.pdf">http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-agreement-02nov09-en.pdf</a>
[PDF, 128K], its appendices at <a href="http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-appendices-02nov09-en.pdf">http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-appendices-02nov09-en.pdf</a>
[PDF, 244K] and a summary of contractual provisions at <a href="http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-summary-of-provisions-02nov09-en.pdf">http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-summary-of-provisions-02nov09-en.pdf</a>
[PDF, 36K]. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Comments on the proposed
agreement can be submitted to <a href="mailto:stld-rfp-post@icann.org">stld-rfp-post@icann.org</a>
through 1 December 2009 and viewed at <a href="http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-post/">http://forum.icann.org/lists/stld-rfp-post</a>.</span></p>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">
<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center">
</span></div>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><strong><span style="font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/magazine/">Sign up for
ICANN's Monthly Magazine</a></span></strong><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></p>