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.sas could be the first contested dot-brand gTLD
Kevin Murphy,
February 2, 2012, 17:56:01 (UTC),
Domain Registries
Scandinavian Airlines System Group is to apply to ICANN for a generic top-level domain, .sas, in what could turn out to be the first example of a contested dot-brand.
The company has agreed to explain its thinking during The Top Level, a conference happening in London later this month.
The agenda for the meeting states that SAS will deliver a presentation entitled: “SAS: Why we made the strategic decision to apply”.
Linn Drivdal Mellbye of conference organizer CloudNames, the Norwegian registry services provider, confirmed in a tweet minutes ago that the sought-after gTLD is .sas.
The string “SAS” has multiple meanings.
Indeed, for about three minutes this post originally stated — wrongly — that the applicant giving the presentation was the North Carolina software giant SAS Institute.
If the American SAS also applies for .sas, it may have to fight it out with the airline at an auction.
SAS — the Scandinavian one — becomes the second dot-brand applicant to come out in as many days, following StarHub’s news yesterday.
The company is based in Stockholm and employs about 25,000 people.
If you use the ICANN String Similarity Assessment tool,
https://icann.sword-group.com/algorithm/Default.aspx
.sas is very similar to both .sa and .as — they might be fighting for a string that can’t even be entered into the root. Although, I suspect ICANN will ignore string similarity, if they can get $185,000 x 2 + auction fees + $25,000/yr + a fee per domain.
Where the string similarity evaluators draw the line is one of the more interesting open questions at the moment.
My hunch is that the sheer volume of potentially rejected apps if they rely on Sword will force them to use a lower bar.
Where the string similarity evaluators draw the line is one of the more interesting open questions at the moment.
My hunch is that the sheer volume of potentially rejected apps if they rely on Sword will force them to use a lower bar.