The ICANN Board and the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) are scheduled to meet for two days beginning February 28th in Brussels to discuss differences in positions on a number of the provisions of the new gTLD program and to reach agreement on possible improvements. 

Key issues at the center of the discussions will include broader protection of geographic words, additional protections for trademark owners and avenues governments can take to address what could be viewed as politically sensitive name strings.  Of these three issues, the last one is obviously difficult to define at the present, let alone predict what could fall into that category in the future.

Any compromises from the Brussels meeting will likely be presented for community consideration at  the ICANN public meeting being held in San Francisco  (March 12 – 18) ahead of ICANN and the GAC formally reconvening on  March 17th to discuss any remaining disagreement.   During that meeting the proposed .xxx TLD is also likely to be discussed for a final time.   

Any new or modified provisions will require an update to the draft applicant guidebook and subsequent posting for public comment again before being approved by the ICANN Board.  Establishing a timeline for the final guidebook and program launch now appears highly dependent on substantial agreement between ICANN and the GAC by the close of meeting in San Francisco.