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NCC buys .trust new gTLD from Deutsche Post

Kevin Murphy, February 17, 2014, 08:10:45 (UTC), Domain Registries

NCC Group, owner of .secure applicant Artemis, has bought the rights to .trust from Deutsche Post, which has an uncontested bid for the new gTLD but decided it doesn’t want it.
The price tag of the deal was not disclosed.
NCC, which is also one of the two major data escrow providers supporting new gTLD applicants, said in a statement:

Deutsche Post originally obtained the gTLD through ICANN’s new gTLD allocation process during 2013 but has now chosen not to utilise it.
NCC Group will use .trust as the primary vehicle for launching its Artemis internet security service, which aims to create global internet safety through a secure and trusted environment for selected customers.
The Group remains in the contention stage with its application to ICANN for the .secure gTLD. It believes that there will be a benefit in having a number of complementary named gTLDs, all of which offer the same high levels of internet security.

While Artemis has applied for .secure, it’s facing competition from the much richer Amazon.
Its initial hope that Amazon’s bid would be rejected due to the controversy over “closed generics” seems to have been dashed after Amazon was allowed to change its application.
NCC may be characterizing .trust as an “additional” security TLD, but it’s quite possible it will be its “only” one.
Deutsche Post, which as owner of DHL is the world’s largest courier service, has passed Initial Evaluation on .trust but has not yet signed its ICANN contract.
ICANN’s web site still shows Deutsche Post as the applicant for .trust and it’s not clear from NCC’s statement how the transfer would be handled.


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Comments (4)

  1. Jim Prendergast says:

    Since a contract has not been signed, it will be interesting to see what kind of re-evaluation hoops ICANN makes NCC jump through on this. And with re-evaluation comes additional fees from ICANN.

    • zack says:

      Since they are already a gTLD applicant I would assume very little but I’m sure there will still be something. If this were a new company (one that had not applied for a gTLD during this last round) then I would assume a heckuva a lot more

  2. Jean Guillon says:

    This is an opportunity for ICANN to demonstrate that anybody can become a new gTLD applicant anytime, even during the application process.

  3. Johnny says:

    Interesting times ahead for NCC Group and the world of cyber security in general I think – should it all go to plan. NCC’s plans will certainly set a new benchmark, it will be very intriguing to see how it reverberates in the IT world

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