gTLD: Four Little Letters that Will Change the Web - In March, Sedo released a survey that asked SMBs about the new internet extensions, or generic top level domains (gTLDs), coming to the public in late 2013.  We wanted to know what they knew about the new internet addresses, and if they were likely to pay attention.  Results showed that SMBs generally didn’t know about the new domains, or really even care.  On the other hand, SMBs were open to the opportunities and said they’d consider buying a new gTLD if they better understood why they would ... read more ...

New gTLD SSR-2: Exploratory Consumer Impact Analysis (Part 5 of 5) - Throughout this series of blog posts we've discussed a number of issues related to security, stability, and resilience of the DNS ecosystem, particularly as we approach the rollout of new gTLDs. Additionally, we highlighted a number of issues that we believe are outstanding and need to be resolved before the safe introduction of new gTLDs can occur — and we tried to provide some context as to why, all the while continuously highlighting that nearly all of these unresolved recommendations came ... read more ...

The Long Gestation and Afterlife of New gTLDs - ICANN continues to flail, pointlessly. The latest in a series of missteps that could easily have been avoided is its recommendations on what to do about a report on the potential for confusion and misaddressing when someone's internal network names match the name for a new gTLD, and they have misconfigured their routers and/or DNS to the extent that someone typing in a new gTLD name might end up in the middle of someone else's network. You'd think that if someone misconfigured their machinery ... read more ...

The Trademark Clearinghouse: Safeguard Your Trademark Online - The imminent launch of the new gTLD (generic top level domain) program will greatly expand current availability of domain names, offering brands and businesses more choices for promoting themselves online. In the coming years, an unlimited number of new second level domains will become available, often on a first-come, first-served basis. The first batch of new gTLDs will include nearly 1,400 new top-level domains including .computer, .insurance, .nyc, .sucks, and others. This program raises ... read more ...

Legal Aspects of Choosing a Domain Name - (Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine) - Choosing the right domain name for your website can be a difficult task. There are several aspects of the selection process that you need to evaluate: It must be a proper reflection of your brand and your website, it must be memorable, and ideally it must be available under the appropriate generic top-level domains (gTLDs). In addition, one area that new users might not be aware of is the legal aspect that comes along with domain selection. ... read more ...

ICANN 47: Policy Debates and Cautious Optimism - A strange feeling came over me after I got home from ICANN 47 in Durban, something I haven't felt after an ICANN meeting before. The feeling? Optimism. I'm optimistic, albeit cautiously so, about the future of ICANN and by extension, hopefully that of Internet governance in general. If the meeting in Durban is any indication, we've come a long way in the past year. There were no outbursts of the type that characterized previous meetings. There were no indicted war criminals invited to ... read more ...

ICANN Will Start Enforcing the New Expired Registration Recovery Policy … - This should really keep registrars on their toes ! Particularly requirements like this ——- ….”if a domain is not renewed, within five (5) days of a domain name’s expiration date, the registrant will be emailed a third notice stating the domain name has expired.” ====================== “During the Redemption Grace Period, the registrant “Must” be permitted by its registrar to restore the deleted registration” Wonder how this “may” affect ... read more ...

New gTLD applicant Radix launches Photo Contest for Registrars - 07|31|2013 07:34 pm EDT New gTLD applicant Radix launches Photo Contest for Registrars by Frank Michlick in Categories: new gTLDs, Up to the Minute It appears that the registry operators for new gTLDs have started the courting for registrars with some marketing efforts. DirectI’s Radix registry has ... read more ...

DreamHost to Use eNom Reseller Platform to Manage Domain Business - DreamHost will use the eNom reseller platform to manage its existing domain name business and new gTLDs as they become available. Wholesale domain registrar eNom announced on Wednesday it has partnered with web hosting provider DreamHost, in which it will use the eNom reseller platform to manage its existing domain name business and new gTLDs as they become available. The partnership comes on the success of eNom’s auction of one and two-character .ORG domains, dubbed Project 94. Additionally, ... read more ...

The Trademark Clearinghouse: Safeguard Your Trademark Online - Terms Conditions and Privacy Statement Mondaq.com (the Website) is owned and managed by Mondaq Ltd and as a user you are granted a non-exclusive, revocable license to access the Website under its terms and conditions of use. Your use of the Website constitutes your agreement to the following terms and conditions of use. Mondaq Ltd may terminate your use of the Website if you are in breach of these terms and conditions or if Mondaq Ltd decides to terminate your license of use for whatever reason. Use ... read more ...

What’s in a domain name? - Protecting IP on the web is about to get even trickier, but luckily a new system is available to helpThis year the internet will undergo one of its biggest changes to date, when hundreds of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) appear in the online space. Soon, we will move beyond the small world of .com and .co.uk to domains including brand specific extensions such as .google, geographic extensions like .london and foreign script extensions.The domain name world is a complex space ... read more ...

4 More Legal Rights Objections Denied At WIPO: 17 Objections, 17 Thrown out … - Earlier today we wrote about two Legal Right Objections (LRO) that were denied at WIPO one for .GMBH and the 5th objection filed be Defender against an applicant for .Home Since then three more decisions came out all against the objectors on the strings .Song; .YellowPages and .Cam The objection to .Song was brought by DotMusic Limited of Lemesos, Cyprus, which is owned by Mr. Constantine Roussous who is an applicant for .Music. Like DotMusic Limited’s objection to Amazon’s application for ... read more ...

WIPO Rejects 13th & 14th Legal Rights Objections To New gTLD’s on .GMBH … - WIPO today released two more Legal Rights Objections (LRO) decisions today and for the 13th and 14th time ruled against the Objector. Objectors are now 0-14 at WIPO on Legal Rights Objections A WIPO panel ruled against Defender Security Company for the new gTLD .home for the 5th time.  Defender filed 9 LRO to the other applicants for .Home. In the other WIPO decision today  TLDDOT GmbH, Germany, lost its objection to .GMBH filed against: The objector who is also an applicant for the new gTLD ... read more ...

Afternic To Provide New gTLD .Kiwi Reserve Lists Of Premium Domains - Afternic, today announced a strategic partnership with Dot Kiwi Ltd, the applicant for the new Top Level Domain (TLD) .KIWI.  Afternic has been selected by Dot Kiwi to  to create reserve lists for their new TLD and “provide definition and valuation services for .KIWI premium domains, expected to launch in late 2013″. The .KIWI registry will offer New Zealand businesses greater branding creativity and the opportunity to differentiate themselves from competitors through the .KIWI TLD. It ... read more ...

Verisign Pre-Earnings: Expecting Modest Growth - Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN), the provider of registry services for all .com and .net domain names, will report its Q2 2013 results on July 25, 2013. We expect continued growth for the company to be driven by increase in .com/.net domain names. However, we forecast the future growth rate of .com/.net domain name base to be lower than the overall Internet domain name growth rate due to competition from country code domain names and other factors. While the introduction of new generic top-level ... read more ...

New generic top-level domains are coming — consider protecting your mark … - In early July 2013, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) passed one of the last checkpoints on the path to introducing new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) by promulgating a registry agreement that will be entered into by successful gTLD applicants prior to delegation of the new domain space. This means that ICANN could delegate the first of the approved gTLDs (of which there are over 1000!) very soon, consistent with its earlier estimation that the first of the ... read more ...

Riding the new gTLD-go-round: revisiting the past?– embracing the future - Closing in on nearly three decades of trademark practice, I am struck by just how far technology has advanced the practice since that bemusing day years ago when a potential client expressed surprise that I was able to file applications with the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) from the West Coast. Today, we can file applications in the US and abroad in just a few clicks—including in 80 or so jurisdictions via the Madrid Protocol. Standing on the cusp of another major technological ... read more ...

Amazon clashes with Latin American countries over domain names - In 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to open up the Internet's generic top-level domain (gTLD) system to a wide range of new applicants, which could change the very face of the web for decades to come. This week, the first of the gTLDs were revealed, and the new entrants into the architecture of the web are breaking new ground by becoming the first non-Latin character gTLDs ever to be approved. Of note ... read more ...

Steering clear of online brand protection issues in the world of new gTLDs - INTERNETBy BiztechAfrica - July 18, 2013, 11:37 a.m.With online influencers from around the world in Durban for ICANN 47, Jan Corstens, Project Owner for the Trademark Clearinghouse and partner at Deloitte, discusses one of the conference’s major talking points: online brand protection in the era of new web extensions. The global Internet community has moved to South African as the latest ICANN conference takes place in Durban this week. ICANN meetings have a heritage of hosting historic changes ... read more ...

The Internet Better Beware: Change is Coming - .com, .org, .gov, .xxx? It’s been over two years since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, voted to expand the number of generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) from the traditional twenty-two (.com, .org, .gov, etc.).  At the close of the application period in June of 2012, ICANN revealed a total of 1,930 new gTLD applications.  Brand owners and trademark attorneys face new challenges in monitoring their trademarks, ... read more ...

5 Things to Know About Engaging With gTLDs: Generics Preparing to Launch - ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jennifer Wolfe is founder and president of Wolfe Domain, a gTLD digital brand strategy advisory firm providing comprehensive guidance to global brands, interactive agencies, domain registrars, and legal counsel representatives on establishing a holistic gTLD name-anchored brand strategy for the next generation of the Internet. As a forward-thinking, accomplished, award-winning attorney and executive leader, she also serves as managing partner of ... read more ...

Durban Hosts the ICANN Internet Protocol Conference - July 19, 2013 Over 40 years ago, a handful of academics began investigating the concept of getting computers to “talk” to each other. From the early days proving the initial concept of ‘inter-networking’ four basic computers to today’s global information infrastructure, the Internet has always fundamentally relied on a system of naming and identifying the individual computers. In order to communicate with another computer ... read more ...

Over €1M Deposit Required To File A New gTLD Objection With The ICC … - At the ICANN Open Forum today at Durban An attorney Mark Partridge took the floor to tell ICANN how much money an objector has to tie up to get their objection heard by the ICC. The ICC hear objections to new gTLD’s that are based on limited public interest objections and  community objections. Here is his statement: I have a new issue to present involving TLD objection process. I’m counsel for parties engaged in community am and limited public interest objections administered by the icc. I’m ... read more ...

ICANN adopts safeguards to protect IP owners’ rights in new gTLDs - As has been well publicized, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is in the final stages of approving nearly 2,000 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for launch. Intellectual property owners and computer security experts have expressed concern that the forthcoming gTLDs may become havens for intellectual property infringers, malware purveyors, counterfeiters and others engaging in infringing or abusive conduct. To address these concerns, the New gTLD Program Committee ... read more ...

GoDaddy Ready For Next Generation Of Internet – 1st To Sign RAA - SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GoDaddy, the Web’s top platform for small businesses, announced today it was the first major registrar to sign ICANN’s new Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The new agreement provides customers a better experience, allows registrars to offer the upcoming new gTLDs and sets the standard for the future of the Internet. Signing the new agreement enables GoDaddy to offer the new top level domain names. This means, starting later this year, new domain name ... read more ...