Tag Archives: new tlds

Thu 18th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GAC plays God with a Durban Communiqué - New TLD applicants’ disdain for the GAC must be growing. The Governmental Advisory Committee has released its Durban Communiqué (pdf), summarizing what it did during this week’s meeting in Durban and its advice to ICANN’s board. Even as someone who’s not directly involved with new TLD applications, I have to admit I got angry reading the Communiqué. I think this sums up my reaction: Just who do these guys think they are? It’s almost as if the GAC knows ... read more ...
Wed 17th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PIR: We consider we’ll get 1 million .NGO domain name registrations - .NGO applicant has goal of a million domain registrations. Public Interest Registry (PIR), the registry behind the .org domain and the only applicant for the .NGO top level domain name, has some lofty goals for the domain. PIR CEO Brian Cute thinks they’ll get one million .ngo domain name registrations. Speaking to Computerwoche.de (and translated into English by PIR), Cute said: The critical mass of a successful domain registrar is one million registrations; this ... read more ...
Tue 16th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Just like Express, The Limited loses .Limited new tip turn domain objection - Donuts has scored its second victory against a large fashion brand. The company has successfully defended itself in a Legal Rights Objection brought by Limited Stores, LLC for the top level domain .Limited. It recently won a case brought by Express for .express as well. The .limited case was determined by Robert A. Badgley, who was not the same panelist for the .express objection. Donuts’ application for the .limited domain claims that likely registrants will include ... read more ...
Mon 15th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Four new tip turn domain name contracts signed - Four IDN top level domains backers sign contracts with ICANN. Yesterday Domain Name Wire reported about dotShabaka Registry signing the first registry agreement for a new TLD with ICANN for شبكة. Today ICANN held a signing ceremony during its meeting in Durban, South Africa, with dotShabaka and three additional top level domain names: Core Association’s онлайн, Russian for “Online”, and сайт, Russian for “Web site” Donuts’ 游戏, Chinese ... read more ...
Sun 14th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First new TLD agreement signed - Arabic language top level domain is first to sign contract with ICANN. In a major milestone for ICANN’s new top level domain program, the first agreement between ICANN and an applicant to run a new TLD has been signed. dotShabaka Registry inked the deal for شبكة, which had a priority number of three in ICANN’s prioritization system. The Arabic language domain name roughly translates to “web” or “network” in English. Arabic speakers will be able to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign reconfirms IDN transliteration plans, provides some-more details - Verisign provides some details on how it will allocate top level domain transliterations. Have you ever invested a lot of money in something without a written contract? It can be a bit nerve racking, and occasionally you can feel like you got burned. That’s why internationalized domain name (IDN) investors are feeling a better after Verisign provided more details about its plans for transliterations of .net and .com domain names. At a high level, there’s nothing ... read more ...
Fri 12th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 ways Express can solve the .Express concerns - Despite losing objection, Express still has plenty of ways to tackle the .express top level domain. American clothing retailer Express (NYSE: EXPR), which has a market cap of close to $2 billion, has lost its Legal Rights Objection against Donuts over the top level domain .express. Kevin Murphy has a good write-up explaining the decision. Express has also applied for the .express top level domain. That means it has many options to resolve its concerns about brand ... read more ...
Mon 8th July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tesco goes after domain penetrate tes.co – and there’s some-more to come. - Here’s an example of a type of complaint we’ll see more often going forward. Traditionally, UDRP panels don’t consider the top level domain as part of what makes a domain name similar to a mark in which the complainant has rights. We can expect this to change as new top level domain names come online. Here’s an example of how a second level domain is not similar to a complainant’s mark, but the combination of the first and second level domain are: tes.co. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
World Congress skeleton 2nd annual gTLD Summit - New TLD event to focus on legal aspects of new top level domain names. Conference organizer World Congress is planning its 2nd Annual Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Names Summit for this September. The one day event will take place September 25 at the Affinia in New York City. It is targeted to intellectual property professionals and brand managers. The agenda is still in the works, but much of it will focus on brand protection as well as strategies to roll out ... read more ...
Wed 3rd July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board approves new TLD registry agreement - Board approves agreement that will govern new top level domain operators. The New gTLD Program Committee of the ICANN Board of Directors has approved the registry agreement that will be signed by most new TLD operators. The 93 page agreement governs how top level domain operators must manage their namespaces, fees they’ll pay ICANN, and under what conditions ICANN can terminate the registry relationship. Not all registry operators will be pleased with the agreement, ... read more ...
Mon 1st July 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Testing DomainsBot’s new TLD Recommendation Engine - Latest DomainsBot software starts to tackle challenge of hundreds of top level domains. DomainsBot announced its new TLD Recommendation Engine today. The service considers a number of data points to return the most relevant top level domain options for a given search. It considers content analysis of popular websites, frequency analysis of searched and registered domains, social media data, and geo targeting. I was eager to try it out given the coming changes to domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google and Lego among speakers during new TLD conference - Initial list of speakers for new TLD conference in London is released. Representatives of Google and Lego will be among the speakers at the Digital Marketing gTLD Strategy Congress in London this September. Hal Bailey, Strategic Partnerships Director at Google, which has applied for about 100 new top level domains, will be speaking. Mette Andersen, Corporate Counsel for Lego, will also present. Lego is one of the most prolific UDRP filers, so it will be interesting ... read more ...
Fri 28th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Case not sealed on “closed generics”, and there’s a hulk loophole anyway - ICANN pushes off decision on closed generic top level domains, leaving many applications in limbo. This week ICANN’s New gTLD Program Committee passed a resolution about so-called “closed generic” top level domain applications. A closed generic is a generic term applied for by an entity that does not plan to offer second level registrations to any other entities. Amazon.com, for example, doesn’t intend to offer second level registrations for any of the strings ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Singulars, plurals, and new tip turn domain confusion - We’re going to have confusion, but that may be OK. ICANN’s new gTLD committee has decided that it will not place singular and plural versions of new top level domain strings into contention sets, shutting down what was effectively an “appeal” by the Governmental Advisory Committee. Here are my thoughts. Yes, plurals and singulars will confuse internet users and domain registrants alike. There’s going to be some confusion. Anyone who says otherwise is blowing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
STRAAT pulls .movie focus as it partners with another company - Company withdraws .movie application just before initial evaluation results were to be announced. For the second time in as many months, Nu Dot Co, LLC, a subsidiary of STRAAT Investments, has withdrawn a new top level domain application and partnered up with another applicant. The latest application withdrawn was for .movie, which faced six competitors. Last month it withdrew its application for .book. “We’ve been working out the details of a strategic partnership ... read more ...
Wed 19th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You’re going to see a lot some-more domain name selling like this… - New TLD backers will be headed to a lot of tradeshows. One of the larger booths at this year’s HostingCon conference is the .host booth, pictured below: I’ve written about a number of domain name companies exhibiting at HostingCon this year, but there’s a big difference between .host and the others. .Host isn’t at the conference trying to get web hosts to sell its services. It’s there because the people it wants to register its domains are the web hosts ... read more ...
Mon 10th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7 reasons we should repel your .brand application - If you’re rethinking your .brand top level domain strategy, here are some things to think about. A relatively small number of .brand new TLD applicants have abandoned the process so far. Some of them are big, such as GM, which withdrew all of its applications. Others have only dropped one or two of their applications. As a .brand applicant yourself, you may be reconsidering your new TLD plans. If you withdraw your application before it passes initial evaluation, ... read more ...
Sat 8th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
XYZ.com wins .college tip turn domain auction - Donuts withdraws application after XYZ.com wins private domain auction. Domain name investor Daniel Negari, through his company XYZ.com, has won the private top level domain name auction for .college. Negari tells Domain Name Wire “I look forward to truly innovating the namespace with one of the best gTLD’s out there.” The string was in contention with Donuts, which has officially withdrawn its application following the auction. XYZ.com applied for three top ... read more ...
Fri 7th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 new TLD auctions move in normal of $1.5 million each - How much do new TLD applicants think their strings are worth? We now have a rough idea on a half dozen. The first six private top level domain name auctions held by Innovative Auctions have closed, bringing in a total of $9.01 million in winning bids. The six domain names no longer in contention are .club, .college, .luxury, .photography, .red, and .vote. There’s one common participant amongst all of these domains: Donuts. Donuts, which applied for 307 top level ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts wins .photography auction - Donuts won the private auction for the .photography top level domain name. Of the six new top level domain name auctions Donuts participated in this past week, the company walked away with at least one top bid. Domain Name Wire has confirmed that Donuts won the auction for .photography. It was in contention with Top Level Design, a company that applied for ten top level domains. Top Level Design is lead by Ray King, who co-founded drop catching service SnapNames. There’s ... read more ...
Thu 6th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
27 investors chip $7 million into .Club as it wins private TLD auction - .Club applicant eliminates competition and raises $7 million to launch top level domain. .Club Domains, LLC has raised a combined $7 million from 27 individual investors and has eliminated its competition for the .club top level domain through a private auction. The new top level domain applicant recently filed its SEC Form D to raise up to $7 million, and later announced it raised half of that amount to participate in the private auction. Citing confidentiality agreements, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board manners on non-safeguard GAC advice - Resolution doesn’t resolve much; uncertainty remains. The ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) has approved a resolution ruling on a number of items of advice from the Governmental Advisory Committee with regards to new top level domain names. The resolution is specifically limited to non-safeguard advice. You can see how it ruled on each item here (pdf). For the most part, the decisions are limited to “we’ll consider the advice”. For example, some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Heads up, .GMBH applicants: this heading focus is slipping by a cracks - .GMBH applicant’s trademark application approved for publishing. I’ve written numerous times about companies trying to trademark top level domain name strings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Although the USPTO won’t grant trademarks on top level domains, some applicants have been able to sneak their applications through at least part of the process. One is getting rather far. TLDDOT GmbH, an applicant for the .gmbh top level domain names, has managed ... read more ...
Mon 3rd June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH raises $10 million for new TLDs - New TLD applicant issues new shares to raise money, also confirms possibility of participating in private new TLD auctions. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited, parent company of Minds + Machines, has conditionally raised $10 million. The company today conditionally placed 110,375,276 new ordinary shares at 6p per share. The money will be used as additional working capital, with much of it earmarked for settling contention sets. The press release also confirms what ... read more ...
Wed 29th May 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club applicant seeks to lift adult to $7 million - .Club Domains, LLC files Form D with SEC. .Club Domains, LLC, an applicant for the .club top level domain name, has filed a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it seeks to raise up to $7 million. The filing states that none of the money has been raised so far, and the company is considering both equity investments and debt. .Club Domains, LLC is lead by CEO Colin Campbell, who has built a number of successful internet companies. According to ... read more ...