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ICANN throws a bone to its most stubborn new gTLD applicant
ICANN has offered an olive branch to a new gTLD applicant that refuses to accept defeat well over a decade after it was rejected.
The Org has offered one last chance for Indian applicant Nameshop to get some of its money back for an application that fell at the first hurdle back in the 2012 application round.
Nameshop applied for .idn, apparently not understanding the rule that strings matching protected three-letter country codes are banned under ICANN rules. IDN is the code for Indonesia.
The company filed a request to change its applied-for string to .internet, using a process ICANN had put in place to allow applicants to correct typos (such as correcting .dotafrica to .africa).
When it was explained to Nameshop that it was trying to misuse the process and its only option was to request a refund of its application fee, the company decided instead to fight fruitlessly for the best part of a decade and a half to get ICANN to change its mind.
ICANN has not changed its mind.
The Org informed all remaining failed 2012-round applicants late last year that they had 90 days to withdraw their applications and get a partial refund or lose their money.
Nameshop evidently chose to reject or ignore that offer, missing the deadline for requesting the refund. Because it used ICANN’s Applicant Support program, its refund would be of the lower $47,000 fee.
But ICANN has offered the company one final attempt to leave the process with at least something. It’s given Nameshop until May 15 to withdraw its application and get its money back.
This appears to be special treatment. Eleven other unsuccessful applications, including those for .hotel, .shop, .africa and .salon, were recently flagged as “Terminated” — as opposed to “Withdrawn” — by ICANN.
I would be remiss if I did not point out that applicants in the current application round, which is open until August, can avoid making silly string selection mistakes by using DI’s free Stringtel tool.
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