Nine Donuts gTLDs delegated

Donuts has had a batch of nine new gTLDs delegated to the DNS root today.
The nine strings are: .ventures, .camera, .clothing, .lighting, .singles, .voyage, .guru, .holdings and .equipment.
All belong to various Donuts subsidiaries that have signed Registry Agreements with ICANN over the last few months.
At this precise moment it does not seem that any have their basic “nic.” second-level domains active and resolving, but all are appearing in the DNS root zone.
Earlier today, Donuts announced the sunrise dates for the first seven gTLDs in its portfolio.
The company already has one gTLD delegated, the Chinese-script version of “.games”.

7 Comments Tagged: .camera, .clothing, .equipment, .guru, .holdings, .lighting, .singles, .ventures, .voyage, donuts, ICANN, new gTLDs

Donuts puts date to first Sunrise, signs big registrars, says it won’t have a landrush

Donuts has announced the dates of its first Sunrise periods and revealed that it’s not planning to run a landrush period for its first seven new gTLDs.
The company said today that it plans to take .bike, .clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles and .ventures to Sunrise on November 26.
It’s opted for a 60-day Sunrise period, going to full general availability on January 29 next year. The company said:

Donuts will forego a traditional land-rush and move directly to general availability to all registrants on January 29, 2014. Donuts’ gTLDs are available for registration by anyone without restriction.

Donuts also said it has signed the following registrars to its channel: GoDaddy, 1&1 Internet, Web.com, Tucows, Host Europe Group, Key-Systems, CSC Digital Brand Services, MarkMonitor, NetNames, Gandi, united-domains, Melbourne IT and 101domain.
While the press release issued this afternoon suggests that the seven strings in question have already been delegated, I’m not seeing them in the DNS root zone yet.

5 Comments Tagged: .bike, .clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, .singles, .ventures, delegation, donuts, landrush, new gTLDs, sunrise

.sexy and .uno raise the average collisions list size

The third batch of new gTLD collisions lists has been released by ICANN, raising the average number of domains that registries are being told to block on extremely cautious security grounds.
The average number of second-level domains to be blocked per gTLD is now 1,904, largely due to the impact of very large lists for .uno (which has 8,187) and .sexy (6,560), which were published yesterday.
This number is only going to get bigger as more cool-sounding Latin-script gTLDs raise the average.
It will be tempered somewhat by the IDN gTLDs, however. The average list for IDNs has only 253 names on it, based on the five published so far.
The most popular strings, ranked by the number of gTLDs’ lists in which they show up (out of a possible 18), are:
[table id=15 /]
There are 30,581 unique second-level strings in total, all of which are fully cross-referenced and searchable at DI PRO.
The most-blocked exact-match brands so far are Yahoo and Google, which both appear on 10 lists. Apple, Facebook and YouTube appear as exact matches on eight.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, name collisions, new gTLDs

Applicants call for new gTLD objections appeals process

Twelve new gTLD applicants, representing many dozens of applications, have called on ICANN to create an appeals process for when Community Objections have debatable outcomes.
Writing to ICANN and the International Chamber of Commerce this week, the applicants focus on the recent decision in the .sport case, which they said proves that ICC panelists don’t fully understand the Community Objection policy as laid out in ICANN’s Applicant Guidebook.
The letter points to five “glaring errors” in the “fatally flawed” .sport decision, in which Olympics-backed applicant SportAccord prevailed over Famous Four Media’s competing application.
The signatories — which include Radix, United TLD, Donuts, Famous Four, TLDH and others — say that the ICC panelist simply assumed SportAccord represented the “sport” community and failed to pinpoint any “likelihood of material detriment” that would be caused by Famous Four’s .sport going ahead.
It seems to me that the latter arguments are much more well-founded.
While the letter tries to pick holes in the panelist’s finding that SportAccord represents enough of the “sport” community to be able to win the objection, the arguments are pretty tenuous.
The applicants use an definition of “community” found elsewhere in the Guidebook, for example, to attempt to show that the panelist failed to follow the guidelines for establishing a community in a Community Objection.
The panelist’s actual ruling uses the definition of “community” from the relevant part of the Guidebook and seems to follow it fairly closely. The applicants make a poor job of questioning his logic.
However, on “detriment”, the letter seems to be on much firmer ground.
It argues that the panelist deliberately lowered the bar from “likelihood of material detriment” to “possibility of material detriment” in order to hand SportAccord a victory.
The letter states:

If the Expert’s current logic is followed, every application, including the Objector’s own application, creates “possible” damage. In this case, an allegation of material detriment against any application would be upheld because there is future “possible” damage.

It also makes reference to the fact that the panelist appears to in many cases have been weighing the Famous Four application against SportAccord’s, which was not his job.
It reads in part: “The Expert did not identify a single objectionable or lacking aspect in the application that creates a likelihood of material detriment.”
The applicants call on ICANN to immediately create an appeals mechanism for Community Objections, and to ensure that ICC panelists are given training before making any more decisions.
Here’s the full list of signatories: Radix, United TLD, DotClub Domains, Top Level Design, Donuts, Top Level Domain Holdings, Priver Nivel, Fegistry, Employ Media, Famous Four Media, Merchant Law Group, DotStrategy.

1 Comment Tagged: .sport, community objection, Famous Four Media, ICANN, new gTLDs, sportaccord

Demand Media to spin off domains business as Rightside

Demand Media has confirmed its plan to spin off its domain name business into a separate company.
The new firm will be called Rightside. As the (rather good) name suggests, it will include the company’s interests in over 100 new gTLD applications and registries.
As well as United TLD, it will also include eNom, Name.com and Demand’s stake in NameJet.
Rightside will be based in Kirkland, Washington, and headed by new appointed CEO Taryn Naidu, who’s been running Demand’s domain unit internally for the last couple of years.

Comment Tagged: demand media, enom, name.com, namejet, rightside

ICANN makes GAC’s Category 1 new gTLD advice less stupid

After six months, ICANN is finally giving its Governmental Advisory Committee what it wants. Kinda.
The New gTLD Program Committee has quietly sent its plan to implement the GAC’s so-called “Category 1” advice on new gTLDs, which called for regulated gTLDs where applicants had applied for open namespaces.
But it’s rewritten the advice in such a way that it’s unlikely to win many fans in either camp, causing headaches for applicants while also falling short of giving the GAC everything it wanted.
In a letter to GAC chair Heather Dryden, ICANN chair Steve Crocker laid out the NGPC’s plan.
The Category 1 advice, which comprised eight “safeguards” applicable to at least 386 gTLD applications for 174 unique strings, has been rewritten, making it a little more palatable to the majority of applicants.
The list of strings has also been cut in two, with the 42 strings considered most often linked to highly regulated industries taking the brunt of the regulation.
These 42 may or may not find their business models killed off, but are certainly facing more friction as a result of the NGPC’s decision:

.abogado, .attorney, .autoinsurance, .bank, .banque, .bet, .bingo, .carinsurance, .casino, .charity (and Chinese IDN), .corp, .cpa, .creditcard, .creditunion, .dds, .dentist, .gmbh, .hospital, .inc, .insurance, .ira, .lawyer., .lifeinsurance, .llc, .llp, .lotto, .ltd, .ltda, .medical, .mutualfunds, .mutuelle, .pharmacy, .poker, .sal, .sarl, .spreadbetting, .srl, .surgery, .university, .vermogensberater, .versicherung

Each of these registries is going to have to sign up to eight new mandatory Public Interest Commitments, obliging them to engage with the industries associated with their strings, among other things.
And while the GAC wanted these strings to be limited to credential-holding members of those industries, ICANN seems to be giving the applicants much more implementation wiggle room.
The GAC had originally called for all 386 Category 1 registries to:

Establish a working relationship with the relevant regulatory, or industry self-regulatory, bodies, including developing a strategy to mitigate as much as possible the risks of fraudulent, and other illegal, activities.

But ICANN has reinterpreted the advice to make it a bit less onerous on applicants. It will also only affect 42 strings. The advice, now rewritten as a PIC, reads:

Registry operators will proactively create a clear pathway for the creation of a working relationship with the relevant regulatory or industry self-regulatory bodies by publicizing a point of contact and inviting such bodies to establish a channel of communication, including for the purpose of facilitating the development of a strategy to mitigate the risks of fraudulent and other illegal activities.

Does that PIC mean registries will actually be obliged to listen to or give policy-making power to the relevant industries on a formal basis? It’s ambiguous enough that the answer might easily be no.
The GAC had also called for some Category 1 gTLDs to become restricted to card-carrying members of the industry or industries the strings relate to, saying in Beijing:

At the time of registration, the registry operator must verify and validate the registrants’ authorisations, charters, licenses and/or other related credentials for participation in that sector.

ICANN has basically rejected that advice, replacing it instead with the much more agreeable (to registries) text:

Registry operators will include a provision in their Registry-Registrar Agreements that requires Registrars to include in their Registration Agreements a provision requiring a representation that the Registrant possesses any necessary authorisations, charters, licenses and/or other related credentials for participation in the sector associated with the Registry TLD string.

You’ll notice that the ICANN version does not require credentials to be provided at the point of registration. In fact, the PIC seems to require nothing more than a check-box that the registrant must click.
This is obviously tolerably good news for applicants that had proposed unrestricted policies for their gTLDs — they no longer face the kiss of death in the registrar channel that the GAC’s version would have created — but let’s not pretend it’s what the GAC had asked for.
Again, it only applies to the 42 strings ICANN has identified as particularly broadly regulated.
These registries are not getting an easy ride, however. They will have to enforce a post-registration regime of verifying credentials in response to complaints. The new ICANN PIC reads:

If a Registry Operator receives a complaint expressing doubt with regard to the authenticity of licenses or credentials, Registry Operators should consult with relevant national supervisory authorities, or their equivalents regarding the authenticity.

It’s implied, but not stated, that uncredentialed registrants should lose their domains. Again, the ICANN version of the GAC advice may be less of a nightmare to implement, but it’s still very vague indeed.
For any Category 1 applicant that is not on the sub-list of 42 sensitive strings, there will be three new PICs to adopt.
These all instruct the registry to require registrars to get registrants to agree to abide by “all applicable laws”. It’s the kind of stuff that you usually find in registration agreements anyway, and doesn’t appear at first look to present any hugely problems for registries or registrars.
Overall, ICANN seems to have done a pretty good job of making the Category 1 advice less onerous, and applicable to fewer applicants, than the GAC originally wanted.
But applicants for the 42 strings most heavily affected still face some vague contractual language and the very real possibility of industry complaints in future.

Comment Tagged: category 1, gac, governmental advisory committee, ICANN, new gTLDs

dotShabaka Diary — Day 23, Wrap-up and Top Tips

We’re wrapping up the dotShabaka Diary series today with this, the final entry from general manager Yasmin Omer.
It’s been an interesting ride, and I thank Yasmin and the dotShabaka team for the time and effort they’ve put into sharing their experiences with DI readers.

Tuesday 5 November 2013
After four months of journal entries, the dotShabaka Registry Diary is wrapping up today following the delegation of شبكة. and official commencement of Sunrise.
The journey has been long and challenging at times. After all the blood, sweat and tears, I strongly believe our experience will be to the benefit of other applicants to follow.
Along the way we experienced the joys of passing pre-delegation testing and commencing Sunrise, but we also documented the lows of name collisions and difficulties in writing a Registry Registrar Agreement.
Throughout the journey it was helpful to receive feedback and comments from the community supporting our cause. This dialogue helped get us to where we are today and a special thank you must be made to IBM’s TMCH team, ICANN, the Pre-Delegation Testing team at IIS (and the PDT Helpdesk) and the many Registrars who have connected with us along the way. Also, a big thank you to Domain Incite and Kevin Murphy for making this journal series possible.
As our delegation journey comes to an end, our TLD launch strategy begins. We have strong ambitions for شبكة. to be the centre of all things Arabic online and we encourage you to continue to watch our progress via our website.
As a parting message, below are our top five tips for other applicants:
1. Communication
Communication is vitally important throughout the process. Be prepared for important emails at any time of the day. When in doubt, always clarify with ICANN and your advisors first. If you are not sure ask ICANN through the CSC portal and if you don’t get a good answer from ICANN ask again through the CSC portal.
2. Seamless integration with RSP
Ensure you have open lines of communication with your Registry Services provider to avoid hiccups and delays. We received technical communications that should have been intended for ARI Registry Services, but our close working relationship with them helped ensure a smooth process.
3. Sort out your product and strategy
Registrar community, potential Registrants, media and interest groups will want information about your TLD. Be ready to describe your TLD, the primary market, eligibility, the launch strategy and other key information.
4. Expect the unexpected
This goes without saying, especially in the ICANN ecosystem. Be flexible and prepare for the worst.
5. The ICANN interface is improving
We understand that many of the frustrations with ICANN occurred because we were the first, and we were pushing hard to go to market. However, it is improving. ICANN are now sending a media kit and hopefully one day someone will get a Welcome Pack.
Good luck to all the other applicants, we’ll be closely watching your progress through delegation.
Regards
Yasmin Omer
General Manager
dotShabaka Registry

Read the full series here.

1 Comment Tagged: dotshabaka diary

Almost 15,000 trademarks registered in TMCH

The new gTLD program’s Trademark Clearinghouse has almost 15,000 trademarks registered, according to a spokesperson.
We’re told today that there’s an average of about two labels for each registered mark, and that about half of all the marks have been registered for multiple years.
The TMCH offers registrations for one, three or five years.
Trademarks in non-Latin scripts currently account for just 3% (so roughly 450) of the registrations, which may be a cause for concern given that IDNs gTLDs will be many of the first to launch Sunrise periods.
The TMCH spokesperson added that registrations of “previously abused labels”, under what we used to call the Trademark+50 policy, are currently “low” because the service was only recently launched.

6 Comments Tagged: idns, new gTLDs, tmch, trademark clearinghouse

Trademark Clearinghouse: early bird pricing ends tomorrow

Trademark owners take note: you have less than 24 hours to get your marks registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse if you want to take advantage of early bird discounted pricing.
A TMCH spokesperson told DI today that the early bird offer ends at 1200 UTC November 5. Its “agents” (registrars) were notified a week ago and today were given a final 24-hour grace period, she said.
This may come as something of a surprise to mark owners who haven’t been paying attention.
When the Clearinghouse went live in March, the TMCH said that the early registration offer would end when the first Sunrise period for the first new gTLD went live.
At the time, ICANN rules stated that registries would have to give 30 days notice before launching a Sunrise.
But these rules recently changed, giving registries the ability to launch immediately as long as the Sunrise runs for at least 60 days rather than the original 30.
And with dotShabaka Registry, one of the first four new gTLDs to go live, opting for the 60-day Sunrise, that means early bird pricing is ending sooner than might have been expected.
Rather than direct discounts, the early bird offer instead awards extra “status points” that can be accumulated to secure lower bulk registration prices.
Trademark owners would have to submit quite a lot of trademarks, or use an agent that is passing the discounts on to its customers, in order to qualify for the lower prices.

Comment Tagged: ICANN, new gTLDs, tmch, trademark clearinghouse

Is ICANN ready to start rejecting some new gTLDs?

Is ICANN getting ready to give marching orders to new gTLD applicants? It seems likely given recent hints out of LA.
Currently, of the original 1,930 new gTLD applications, 125 have been withdrawn but only two or three have been rejected.
GCC’s .gcc and DotConnectAfrica’s .africa are both “Not Approved” while Nameshop’s .idn failed to pass its applicant support program tests and seems to have been put aside for this round.
But there are at least 22 active applications that are due to be hit with the ban hammer, by my reckoning. That’s not including those that may be killed off by Governmental Advisory Committee advice.
First, there are seven bids (so far) that have failed Community Objections or Legal Rights Objections filed against them, or have lost String Confusion Objections filed by existing TLD operators.
Applications such as Ralph Lauren’s .polo, Dish DBS’ .direct and Demand Media’s .cam have fallen foul of these three objection types, respectively.
Under the Applicant Guidebook rules, these applications are not allowed to proceed.
There are also 10 active applications for .home and five for .corp, two gTLD strings ICANN has said it will not approve due to their substantially higher risk of causing name collisions.
(Personally, I think these applicants should get full refunds — ICANN screwed up by not doing its homework on name collisions before opening the application window last year).
So far, ICANN seems to have been waiting for applicants to withdraw, rather than initiating a formal rejection.
But none of them actually have withdrawn.
The International Union of Architects, which won a Community Objection against Donuts over .architect in September, has noticed this too, and recently wrote to ICANN to find out what was going on.
Responding October 31, Generic Domains Division president Akram Atallah wrote (with my emphasis):

as a result of the objection determination, we have updated the status of the objection on the .ARCHITECT application to “Objector Prevailed” on the Objection Determinations page (http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-­‐status/odr/determination) of the New gTLD microsite. Additionally, we will be updating the overall status of this application on the New gTLD microsite (https://gtldresult.icann.org/application-­‐result/applicationstatus) pursuant to Section 1.1.2.9 of the Applicant Guidebook in the near future.

This suggests either a “Not Approved” status for .architect, or a new status we haven’t seen before, such as “Lost Objection”.
So could, for example, Demand Media’s .cam application be rejected? Demand lost a SCO filed by Verisign, but its two competitors for the string prevailed in virtually identical cases.
Would it be fair to reject one but not the others, without any kind of ICANN review or oversight?
Last week at the newdomains.org conference in Munich, I asked Atallah a question during a panel discussion about consistency in the new gTLD program, with reference to objections.
I was on stage and not taking notes, but my recollection is that he offered a not at all reluctant defense of subjectivity in panelists’ decision-making.
It was certainly my impression that ICANN is less troubled by inconsistent rulings than the applicants are.
In the .architect case, Atallah told the UIA that ICANN intends to implement objection rulings, writing:

ICANN will, of course, honor all panel decisions regarding objection determinations, unless directed to do otherwise by some action, for example, by virtue of Reconsideration Requests or other accountability mechanisms or action of the ICANN Board of Directors. To our knowledge, Spring Frostbite [Donuts] has not filed a Reconsideration Request or invoked an Independent Review Process with respect to this objection determination regarding the .ARCHITECT string.

6 Comments Tagged: ICANN, name collisions, new gTLDs, objections, string confusion