Recent Posts
- ICANN publishes its Woke Manifesto. Here’s my hot take
- Alibaba, Name.com among new RDRS opt-ins
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- Epik gets acquired again! The plot thickens…
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- First bits of new gTLD Applicant Guidebook expected next week
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Still no closure on GAC new gTLD advice
ICANN board members met again to discuss the Governmental Advisory Committee’s advice on new gTLDs at the weekend and, again, made baby steps towards addressing it.
The main update in a just-published New gTLD Program Committee resolution is that dozens of previously frozen applications for “closed generic” gTLDs have been thawed.
These applicants will be able to proceed to contracting with ICANN, as long as they agree to sign a version of the Registry Agreement that prohibits use of the string as a closed generic.
Closed generics haven’t been killed off, but anyone still planning to operate one is still in GAC limbo.
The NGPC said in its latest scorecard (pdf):
ICANN has received communications from many of the applicants for strings mentioned in this advice, stating that they are prepared enter the Registry Agreement as approved by the NGPC, which prohibits exclusive registry access for generic strings. Since moving forward with these applicants is consistent with the GAC advice, the NGPC directs staff to move forward with the contracting process for applicants for strings identified in the Category 2 Safeguard Advice that are prepared to enter into the Registry Agreement as approved.
The hundreds of “Category 1” strings — those, such as .law, .health and .games, that the GAC believes need extra regulation before being approved — are still on hold.
The NGPC said: “The NGPC is working on an implementation plan for the advice and will inform the GAC of the details upon approval by the NGPC.”
Does that mean ICANN will be accepting the advice? Right now, that’s not clear.
There was no movement on Amazon’s application for .amazon and transliterations, which were put on hold following the GAC’s advice at the Durban meeting in July.
Amazon submitted a lengthy argument challenging the legal basis of the GAC’s advice, which the NGPC is still mulling over.
so I guess any of the strings in which one of the contenders still wants it closed will kind of be in limbo?
How can this not constitute a material change to the application?
The application for a closed generic would necessitate policies and procedures tailored to the operation of a closed generic, financial projections based on the operation of a closed generic, and COI based on registration volume of a closed generic. To sign a RAA that specifically prohibits the closed generic would be to nullify nearly everything of substance contained in the application.