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Foot-dragging Amazon has bumper crop of new gTLDs

Kevin Murphy, December 7, 2015, Domain Registries

Amazon Registry Services took possession of 17 new gTLDs at the weekend.
The would-be portfolio registry had .author, .book, .bot, .buy, .call, .circle, .fast, .got, .jot, .joy, .like, .pin, .read, .room, .safe, .smile and .zero delegated to the DNS root zone.
Amazon seems to have waited until the last possible moment to have the strings delegated.
It signed its registry agreements — which state the TLDs must be delegated with a year — in mid-December 2014.
Don’t plan on being able to register domains in any of these gTLDs. You may be disappointed.
All of the strings were originally applied for as what became known as “closed generics”, in which Amazon would have been the only permitted registrant.
It recanted this proposed policy in early 2014, formally amending its applications to avoid the Governmental Advisory Committee’s anti-closed-generic advice.
Its registry contracts do not have the standard dot-brand carve-outs.
However, the latest versions of its applications strongly suggest that registrant eligibility is going to be pretty tightly controlled.
The applications state: “The mission of the <.TLD> registry is: To provide a unique and dedicated platform while simultaneously protecting the integrity of Amazon’s brand and reputation.”
They go on to say:

Amazon intends to initially provision a relatively small number of domains in the .CIRCLE registry to support the goals of the TLD… Applications from eligible requestors for domains in the .CIRCLE registry will be considered by Amazon’s Intellectual Property group on a first come first served basis and allocated in line with the goals of the TLD.

They state “domains in our registry will be registered by Amazon and eligible trusted third parties”.
Amazon has not yet published its TLD start-up information, which may provide more clarity on how the company intends to handle these strings.
I suspect we’ll be looking at a policy that amounts to a workaround of the closed-generic ban.
The registry seems to be planning to run its registry from AmazonRegistry.com.