Vancouver 2002: First page Agenda-at-a-glance Business Day Technology Day People Day Speakers Sponsors

< Jonathan C. Cohen >

Jonathan C. Cohen
barrister at law
Shapiro Cohen Group
Member of the ICANN-Board
www.icann.org

Jonathan Cohen, the senior managing partner of Shapiro, Cohen, Barristers and Solicitors, is continuing his extensive international work in the area of Domain Name and Intellectual Property disputes on the Internet. During the past four years, Mr. Cohen has worked extensively in the process of Internet governance reform both in Canada and internationally, from participating in the initial meetings of WIPO and IAHC (International Ad Hoc Committee) in Geneva in 1997 on the implementation of domain name / trade-mark dispute resolution on the Internet, to lecturing and chairing meetings extensively on the subject around the world as a representative of both Canadian intellectual property professionals and as a member of FICPI (Fédération International des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle).

When ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), assumed responsibility for the governance of the DNS and the Internet from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Jonathan continued his active participation in international DNS reform activities by leading the process for the formation of the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) of the Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO) of ICANN. He was elected first President of the newly formed IPC, as well as one of the three representatives of the IPC on the Names Council, the governing body of the DNSO. The IPC currently represents over fifty international, national and regional intellectual property organizations and gives the IP community a strong voice in Internet/DNS governance issues which impact significantly on the interests of owners of IP.

As the IPC's first President, Jonathan was asked by the United States Congress to testify before its Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary about Internet Domain Names and Intellectual Property Rights, in July 1999. He also worked on the negotiations between ICANN, NSI, and the gTLD Registrars during the drafting of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) which has been implemented by all ICANN - accredited Registrars in domain name disputes. The UDRP has proven to ba an efficient and successful alternative to litigation in cybersquatting cases.

In October 1999, Jonathan was elected to the Board of Directors of ICANN for a first one-year term, as well as the Board of CIRA, (Canadian Internet Registration Authority), the body which assumed responsibility for administering .ca, the Canadian top level domain at the end of last year. In October 2000, Jonathan was re-elected to the ICANN Board for a three-year term, and in addition to regular board responsibilities related to matters such as the introductin of new top level domains, negotiations with ccTLDs and other governance matters, he works actively on the board's finance, meetings and executive search committees.

In addition, he continues his active involvement in the IPC as FICPI's representative and in the position of Past President. During the past two years, Jonathan has had numerous speaking engagements around the world, where he has appeared in his capacity as a director of ICANN, giving intellectual property professionals and leaders of the international business community an overview of the ICANN process, and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, their implications for IP rightholders, and a perspective on the future of Internet technical management reform, with a particular focus on those areas of the world which have not had the opportunity to participate as actively in recent developments as North America and Europe.

To date he has addressed delegates at the FICPI ExCo meeting in Cape Town, South Africa and Seville, Spain; the FICPI-APAA Forum in New Delhi; the IPC meeting in Washington, D.C. and Vienna, the Cyberbe@t1 seminars in London and Paris; the CAINet Conference in Cairo Egypt, the John Marshall Law School Center for IP Law's 44th Annual Conference on Developments in IP Law in Chicago, the IPSKI meeting in Switzerland, the INTA meeting in Denver, The ECTA 19th Annual Conference in Crete, the UN/ECE Forum on Electronic Commerce for Transition Economies in Geneva, the FICPI World Congress in Vancouver, as well as meeting with business representatives in other countries such as Japan and Thailand.

He will continue, in the upcoming months, to represent ICANN and/or speak at events such as the WIPO Conference on IP questions relating to ccTLDs in Geneva, the FICPI ICANN/IPC Seminar in Melbourne, Australia, the Internet Marketing Conference in Las Vegas and the INTA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Jonathan C. Cohen
barrister at law
Shapiro Cohen Group
Member of the ICANN-Board
www.icann.org