As ICANN’s statement on the IPRs came up during our call now, below is the statement from August 2015. Nurani
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2015-08-15-en
ICANN Statement Regarding IANA Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
ICANN supports the IANA Stewardship Transition Group (ICG) proposal and the underlying proposals from the Community Working Group (CWG), the Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) team and the Planning for the IANA/NTIA Transition (IANAPLAN) working group.
The ICANN Board is focused on how to implement the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) component of the proposal. The Board believes that for stability and pragmatic operational reasons, the IANAFunctions Operator must have operational control over the IANA.ORG domain.
During the transition, ICANN is prepared to transfer full ownership of the IANA-related trademarks to a neutral third party mutually agreed among the operational communities with the understanding that ICANN, as the current IANA Functions Operator, will be granted license to those trademarks and ICANNwill maintain operational control of the IANA.ORG domain for as long as ICANN remains the IANAFunctions Operator.
If the transfer during the transition affects the timeline, we advise delay until after the transition. In that event ICANN is ready to hold the IPR as interim measure but commits to transfer it within 120 days after the neutral third party is identified by the operational communities.
We believe this is neutral and in the public interest. We look forward to hearing from anyone in the community.