Recent Posts
- ICANN lawyers want to keep their clients secret
- Facebook cybersquatter asks ICANN to overturn UDRP ruling
- .xxx founder Stuart Lawley has died
- The new gTLD Next Round is really happening as two ICANN programs go live
- Verisign has much to be thankful for as .com contract renewed
- Another 40,000 .ai domains registered
- RDRS usage hits new low
- A dot-brand that was actually used is shutting down
- .id joins the million-domain club
- GoDaddy’s .xxx contract renewed
- Twitter clone Bluesky has one feature domain people should like
- ICANN confirms two bans on new gTLD gaming
- eBay slogan domain no longer has a BIN price
- Will Donald Trump be .io’s white knight?
- As customers flee legacy gTLDs, .org tops 11 million names
- Company accidentally puts porn domain on kids’ toys
- eBay’s new slogan looks like a $75,000 domain it doesn’t own
- Americans are deserting .com
- Weak Q3 for the domain universe, Verisign reports
- ICANN says it WILL raise its domain taxes soon
- Senator says domain industry “enables” Russian disinfo attacks
- bit.ليبيا? Libya to get its Arabic ccTLD
- Verisign gets eight more years running the root
- Two-horse race for open ICANN board seat
- Chinese say internet not ready for single-letter gTLDs
- Unloved INTA slams ICANN over new gTLDs
- Namecheap scores win in .org price-cap lawsuit
- Some Guy wants to take over .com and .net
- Second-shot gTLD bid rules revealed
- Nominet names directors after tight election
- Lawyer ban coming to ICANN
- Identity Digital to take over .ai
- ICA teams up with WIPO on UDRP reform
- Response to sex harassment lawsuit “inadequate”, say ICANN vets
- Unstoppable tops four million names
- Amazon readying fashion and book gTLDs
- Five times ICANN deleted a ccTLD, and what it means for .io
- Future of .io domains uncertain as UK hands over Chagos islands
- .ai now has over half a million names
- UK and Israel cut ICANN funding
- Twitter now up-to-date on linkification
- Moment of truth as .music domains finally go on sale
- ICANN fixes embarrassing “What is a Domain Name?” mistake
- Another ccTLD opens up its second level
- Reporter gains first access to .io island for decades
- .io sells $40 million of domains after massive uptick
- After five years, “useless” TLD has two web sites
- Verisign agrees to .com takedown rules
- New .com contract could see ALL domain prices go up
- Investing in .ad domains may be risky
- Plurals ban policy handed to ICANN board
- Three .now domains sell at premium EAP prices
- ICANN confirms new gTLD application fee
- New gTLD application fee rises by thousands after collision call
- Former .co registry defeated in $350 million contract fix case
- Is this the first Next Round new gTLD contention battle?
- ICANN names its Supreme Court judges
- Who uses Sunrise nowadays? You might be surprised
- ICANN gunning for Tencent over abuse claims
- All the one-character .sk domains to be auctioned
- Straggler gTLD signs first ICANN contract for years
- GoDaddy likely to win relaxed .xxx deal
- Tonkin promoted to CEO at auDA
- ICANN hires new Ombuds from WIPO
- Big twist as ICANN bans new gTLD auctions
- ICANN to “strengthen” harassment rules as it picks another homophobic meeting host
- .my global relaunch starts slowly despite cheapo prices
- Hackers break .mobi after Whois domain expires
- The new gTLD next, next and next round
- Squarespace gets sweetened $7.2 billion takeover offer
- ICANN hit by DDoS attack
- Russia calls for ICANN to split from US
- China loses over half a million domains
- ICANN to be director light for months
- FBI seizes Russian fake news domains
- Chinese registrars back in trouble after porn UDRP suspension
- Sataki quits ICANN board
- Microsoft switches two gTLDs from GoDaddy to Nominet
- ICANN homes in on new gTLD application fee
- Four more dot-brands switch back-ends
- Uzbekistan gets its first ICANN registrar
- Almost 100,000 .tr domains registered in one day
- ICA finally comments on .com pricing talks
- Unstoppable reveals gTLD bid doomed to fail
- RDRS usage stabilizing?
- “Frat boy culture” ICANN faces more sexual harassment claims
- Unstoppable gets ICANN accreditation
- AI and games among July’s interesting dot-brand domains
- ICANN U-turns on appeals loophole after community revolt
- ICANN to terminate five new gTLDs
- US could change .com pricing terms
- Two out, two in as NomCom picks new ICANN directors
- .cv domains now on sale worldwide
- It’s official, .internal is blocked forever
- Amazon to launch two new gTLDs this month
- Revealed: who’s really running Epik
- ICANN swaps out Asia VP
- No .uk price hikes despite tumbling sales
- Domain world growth despite .com slide
- Verisign predicts more gloom as registrars shun .com growth
- Republicans quiz NTIA on Verisign .com renewal
- Smaller, more intense ICANN meetings with no free cocktails?
- Private auctions to be banned in next new gTLD round
- .au prices going up
- Nominet names director hopefuls
- Crowdstrike screw-up took down ICANN’s email
- We grassed up .TOP, says free abuse outfit
- ICANN to earmark $10 million for new gTLD subsidies
- TV network rebrands on single-letter domain
- First registry gets breach notice over new abuse rules
- Americans and ICANNers avoid Kigali in droves
- RDRS stats improve a little in June
- Unstoppable Domains goes down after domain hijack
- Four more gTLDs in emergency measures
- New gTLDs and ccTLDs drive domain universe growth
- Eight interesting recent dot-brand registrations
- .me premium sales down
- Pride fails to reverse gay domains decline
- Unstoppable announces another new gTLD bid
- Blockchain naming firm gets ICANN accreditation
- ICANN takes over gTLD after Whois failures
- Verisign: would-be .com contract killers are “wrong”
- Five gTLDs at risk as registry goes AWOL
- Groups make flawed case that .com is a cartel
- RDRS usage hits all-time low
Unstoppable reveals gTLD bid doomed to fail
It’s finally happened. Somebody has announced an application for a new gTLD that will almost certainly fall foul of ICANN’s rules and be rejected.
The would-be applicant is Farmsent, a United Arab Emirates startup that is building a blockchain-based marketplace for farmers and buyers of farm produce, and its domains partner is Unstoppable Domains.
Unstoppable said last week that the two companies are launching .farms domains on Unstoppable’s alternative naming system, and that an ICANN application for a proper gTLD is in the works.
The company said it “will be collaborating with Farmsent to plan and strategize for the next ICANN gTLD application, further solidifying .farms in the wider domain ecosystem”.
The problem is that .farms will likely be banned under the rules set out in ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook for the next round, unless the current draft recommendations are completely rewritten or rejected.
ICANN is to be told to reject applications for the plural and singular variants of existing gTLDs in the next round, and .farms is of course the plural of .farm, which is one of the few hundred names in Identity Digital’s stable.
The draft recommendations would merely require for ICANN to be informed that an applied-for string is a single or plural variant of an existing gTLD in the same language and check in a dictionary to confirm that is indeed the case.
In the case of .farm and .farms, I doubt the dictionary verification would realistically even be needed — though I’d bet checking that box would be at least one billable hour for somebody — as it’s a pretty clear-cut case of a bannable clash.
The ICANN staff/community working group drafting the recommendations has spent a huge amount of time arguing about the language of the plurals rule. It’s a surprisingly tricky problem, especially when ICANN is terrified of being seen as a content regulator.
If you find this post or this blog useful or interestjng, please support Domain Incite, the independent source of news, analysis and opinion for the domain name industry and ICANN community.
.farms bought the farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CdVTCDdEwI
Tipping them off is not fair. You may have deprived us of future entertainment here.
Boo this man!! xD
PDFs located here seem to indicate such rule changes were not adopted by ICANN: https://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/proceeding/string-similarity-review-guidelines-07-02-2024
Also reviewing the current gTLD Application Guidebook, there’s no mention of plural TLDs that I can find.
Can someone provide proof of where such language exists?
The rules have not yet been adopted and the language being drafted is for recommendations that would need to be adopted by the ICANN board. I’ve made some clarifications to the article.
What are you calling current gTLD Application Guidebook ? The one we have right now is 12 years old…
lol they froze registrations for a minute pending discussion with the partner but it’s live again now, should end well