ICANN: We Might Still Be Able To Approve New TLDs in June

Organization says it still might be able to move ahead with program next month.

ICANN’s Board thinks it might still be able to approve the new top level domain name program at the beginning of next month’s meeting in Singapore.

The approval was put into doubt after comments from government officials.

But ICANN and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) just released a joint statement about another “productive meeting” between the two of them. The statement concludes:

The latest discussion and ICANN Board and GAC agreement on the benefits of having a face-to-face meeting in Singapore pave the way to possible Board consideration of program approval on 20 June 2011.

If the program is approved on June 20, I can guarantee you that ICANN will make significant concessions to the GAC between now and then. Those concessions will mostly be in favor of trademark interests.