[CCG]Re: IETF Trust Restructuring & Transfer of IANA Intellectual Property

[Glenn Deen <[e-mail]>]

I'm not trying to be antagonistic but this is a decision which does need to
be resolved.   We have been waiting since last June/July 2024 for an answer.

Here's a possible path to move forward -

Citing the agreement that is the foundation for this discussion. so we are
focusing on the details:
https://trustee.ietf.org/wp-content/uploads/Community-Agreement-2016-09-30-Executed.pdf,
the clause behind the Trust seeking permission is 4.2 which states:

4.2 Encumbrances and Transfer. Except as contemplated by this Agreement and
the License Agreements, the IETF Trust shall not sell, lease (as lessor),
transfer or otherwise dispose of, or mortgage or pledge, or impose or
suffer to be imposed any Encumbrance on, in whole or in part, any of the
IANA Intellectual Property without the prior written approval of the
CCG, *which
shall not be unreasonably withheld. *

So let me ask, and I'm not doing this in anyway as a posturing exercise but
entirely as a reframing of what it is being asked of the CCG to see if it
helps move decision making along:

If coming to consensus is proving too difficult to close on across
all communities, does it in any way make it easier to ask the alternate
form of the question that is in Section 4.2 - which is the question:  "Does
the CCG have a reasonable reason to withhold its approval?"   This is
highlighting an important part of the 4.2 clause that was included in the
signed agreement that was intended to help resolve just the sort of problem
we may have reached here.

Is there a reasonable reason for the CCG to withhold approval of the
transfer from the IETF Trust to the IETF Intellectual Property Management
Corporation run by the same appointees, appointed through the same bodies
and following the same agreements to protect the IANA IPR as did the IETF
Trust?

In the absence of such a reason the clause would seem to suggest that the
written consent should be provided.

Again, this is in the interest of finding a path to move as we seem to have
become stalled.

-glenn



regards,

Glenn

On Tue, Jan 7, 2025 at 12:15 PM [e-mail] <
[e-mail]> wrote:

> I am not aware of an approach to seek consensus of the names community.
>
>
> CW
>
>
> On 7 Jan 2025, at 19:36, Russ Housley <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> Greg:
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> Were the CCG members from the names community able to reach consensus?
>
> Russ
>
> On Jul 15, 2024, at 2:25 PM, Glenn Deen <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>
> Hello CCG Chairs,
>
>
> As Chair of the IETF Trust I'm writing to you on behalf of the IETF Trust
> about the transfer of IANA Intellectual Property held and managed by the
> IETF Trust to the new not-for-profit Delaware based IETF Intellectual
> Property Management Corporation  (IPMC) that the current IETF Trust a
> Virginia based Common Trust entity is restructuring into.
>
>
> This IETF Trust restructuring has been underway for some time now and is
> nearing its end.  We are now undertaking the final steps, which largely
> involve the actual transfer of the Intellectual Property and IP rights held
> by the IETF Trust.
>
>
> For anyone not familiar with this restructuring work, the IETF Trust's
> role remains the same, as does the appointment processes for the 5 IETF
> Trustees (3 from IETF noncom, 1 from IETF IESG and 1 from ISOC Board of
> Trustees).  The IETF Trustees will now be Directors of the new
> corporation.
>
>
> What has changed is all legal under the covers, with the IETF Trust
> legally changing from a Virginia Common Trust to a Delaware not-for-profit
> corporation which like the Virginia entity has been recognized by the IRS
> as a not-profit 501c3.      If you're interested in the details , the new Legal
> Documents <https://trustee.ietf.org/documents/founding-documents/> [1]
> and the Community Consultation
> <https://trustee.ietf.org/about/community-consultation-on-restructuring-the-ietf-trust/>
> [2] are all available on the IETF Trust <https://trustee.ietf.org/>
> website (https://trustee.ietf.org)
>
>
> The IETF Trust provides service beyond the IETF community by holding IANA
> related Intellectual Property assigned to it as part of the 2016 IANA
> restructuring.    See Exhibits A & B in the IANA Assignment Agreement
> <https://trustee.ietf.org/wp-content/uploads/Assignment-Agreement-2016-09-30-Executed.pdf> [3]
> for the full asset list of IANA IP  consisting of Trademarks and Domain
> Names.      Under the agreement, the IETF Trust holds the IANA TMs,
> maintaining registrations and taking appropriate actions as needed to
> protect the TMs.    The IETF Trustees also provide change approval for the
> transferred DNS Domains whereby approval by any 3 of the 5 Trustees is
> required for any technical changes to the domains.
>
>
> During a review of reassignment of agreements the IETF Trust with
> different parties, we recently came across a requirement in the 2016 IANA
> agreements [3][4] around the IANA Intellectual Property held by the IETF
> Trust that requires that we consult and get approval from the CCG for the
> Transfer of the IANA IP assets.
>
>
> BTW, Here is the requirement:   Section 4.2 of the Community Agreement
> <https://trustee.ietf.org/wp-content/uploads/Community-Agreement-2016-09-30-Executed.pdf>
>  [4]
>
>
>
> *4.2 Encumbrances and Transfer. Except as contemplated by this Agreement
> and the License Agreements, the IETF Trust shall not sell, lease (as
> lessor), transfer or otherwise dispose of, or mortgage or pledge, or impose
> or suffer to be imposed any Encumbrance on, in whole or in part, any of the
> IANA Intellectual Property without the prior written approval of the CCG,
> which shall not be unreasonably withheld.*
>
>
> While the transfer isn't to outside of the IETF Trust, we've tried to err
> on the side of compliance so we're writing to the CCG chairs.
>
>
> To be fully transparent, if you check in the US TM database, you'll see
> that the IANA TMs were transferred as part of a batch of transfers done for
> the IETF TMs held by the Trust.   Our sincere apologies for getting ahead
> of obtaining CCG approval, we had previously reviewed the IANA agreements
> related to re-assignment, but only on a recent re-review came across the
> specific need in Section 4.2 related to the CCG approval.     Now that we
> see the requirement, we are working to correct and comply.
>
>
> Current status of IANA IP: The IANA TMs transfers have been submitted to
> various TM regimes that they are registered in and some like the US have
> been processed.     The DNS Domains have not yet been transferred and the
> Trustees of the Virginia Trust are continuing their role as technical
> change approvers.
>
>
> To comply with our IANA agreement under section 4.2, the IETF Trust
> intends to send to the 3 CCG Chairs a formal transfer approval request for
> the IANA IP via Docusign.
>
>
> Since we've never done this sort of request with the CCG we don't have any
> past process for IETF Trust::CCG interaction to follow, hence this note.
>
>
> In terms of time, we'd like to resolve this as quickly as possible.  We're
> very near the end of the restructuring and we'd like to complete our asset
> transfers.
>
>
> Are there any questions that you have, or should we go ahead and send the
> notice over for signatures?
>
>
> Referenced Links:
>
>
> [1] https://trustee.ietf.org/documents/founding-documents/
>
> [2]
> https://trustee.ietf.org/about/community-consultation-on-restructuring-the-ietf-trust/
>
> [3]
> https://trustee.ietf.org/wp-content/uploads/Assignment-Agreement-2016-09-30-Executed.pdf
>
> [4]
> https://trustee.ietf.org/wp-content/uploads/Community-Agreement-2016-09-30-Executed.pdf
>
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Glenn Deen,
>
> IETF Trust Chair
>
>
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