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The number of expected new gTLDs is still speculative and will likely remain just that until the application period ends.  However there is a website of proposed new gTLDs that have been identified by Internet addresses and extensions. The site lists 106 proposed new gTLDs containing a mix of categories: community, ethnic, geographical (geo; country, region, city), IDN and specialized.  Not all known IDNs proposed are on the list, and .deloitte is missing from the brand category. The specialized category contains proposed gTLDs such as .car, .mls, .money, .music, .sport, .web as well as 26 others. 

A check of the supporting websites indicates a number of proposed gTLDs have backing and potentially viable business cases, while others appear to be seeking support and investment. There are likely as many if not more new gTLDs being considered that haven’t been announced, so while the exact number isn’t known it is apparent there is growing interest in the new gTLD concept.

The complete list can be viewed at www.newtlds.tv/newtlds

Landrush for .co  has started and will extend from June 21 through July 13. All trademark restrictions have been removed, allowing anyone to apply for available .co names. Duplicate applications will be decided by auction.

Single character .co domain names have been getting significant attention.  Twitter acquired t.co and will be developing this as their proprietary domain name shortener.  Ten bidders initially participated in the auction for e.co which was ultimately sold for $81,000. 
 
There are still opportunities to apply for prime keyword domain names to create memorable URLs for   micro-sites and advertising opportunity.

The launch of .co began March 1 with a Grandfather phase followed by a Sunrise Local A phase for holders of trademarks registered in Colombia. The Sunrise Global B phase for global trademark holders begins April 26 and extends through June 10.

In addition to being common abbreviation for company and corporation, a .co domain name can help increase website traffic. Using proprietary typographical analysis our research indicates that on average a .co domain name can generate 7% of the traffic of the equivalent .com domain name. In many cases this will make it well worth the cost of adding a number of .co domains to your portfolio. The estimates are based on website averages for domain name type-in behavior and analysis of typographical errors.

Due to the resemblance to .com and other popular associations companies may need to consider securing their brand as a defensive registration since .co will become available to the general public in the landrush and general availability phases.

Companies interested in application for any phase can submit their domain name requests now and we’ll handle submission for the appropriate phase. For more information and terms and conditions, contact your client services manager.

Launch Details:

• Sunrise phase B: 26 April 2010 through 10 June 2010. Applicants must have an active trademark registered in a trademark office or registry that corresponds to a state or entity described in the WIPO Standard ST.3 code on or before 30 July 2008. Applications for domains with multiple qualified applicants will go to auction.
• Landrush phase: 21 June 2010 through 13 July 2010. During landrush, applications are open to the general public. Multiple applications for the same domain will go to auction.
• General availability: commences 20 July 2010. Domains will be available on a first-come first-serve basis.

Fifteen multiple listing services (MLS) in the U.S. have formed the MLS Domains Association with the intent to obtain the .mls gTLD according to their press release.  The group members currently operate Multiple listing services (MLS) used by real estate brokers.  “For years, MLSs and REALTOR® Associations have objected to businesses referring to themselves as ‘MLSs’ in their marketing, when in fact they are not MLSs,” said Bob Bemis, interim President of the Association and CEO of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. “Our goal is to create a place, the .MLS top-level domain, where the web sites actually belong to MLSs, not to other types of business,” he said.
The group intends for .mls to benefit consumers by providing a unique location of MLS data on the Internet and for the TLD to be the definitive source or MLS listings.

The launch of .co began March 1 with a Grandfather phase for existing third level domain holders. This phase has ended and now begins the Sunrise periods for trademark holders. Sunrise phase A begins April 1 and extends through April 20.

In addition to “co” being common abbreviation for company and corporation, having a .co domain name can help increase website traffic. Using proprietary typographical analysis, our research indicates that on average a .co domain name can generate 7% of the traffic of the equivalent .com domain name. In many cases this will make it well worth the cost of adding a number of .co domains to your portfolio. The estimates are based on website averages for domain name type-in behavior and analysis of typographical errors.

Due to the resemblance to .com and other popular associations, companies may want to consider securing their brand as a defensive registration since .co will become available to the general public in the landrush and general availability phases. Companies interested in application for any phase can submit their domain name requests now and we’ll handle submission for the appropriate phase.

The ICANN meeting in Nairobi on 12 March 2010 ended with a decision to withdraw the EOI process that was proposed at the prior public meeting in Seoul, Korea in October 2009.  The ICANN Board determined the benefits of proceeding with an EOI proposal were outweighed by the costs of potential delay to the new gTLD program and the lack of certainty about the date when the overarching issues of the program could be resolved.

On 18 March 2010 Melbourne IT provided an update of the meeting.  In case you missed it or would like to review the content, the session was recorded.  You can access it by following this link : March gTLD Update

Summary of the current state of the New gTLD process
The ICANN Board resolutions on gTLDs were good news for brand owners, especially those who felt the need to apply to protect their interests prior to a number of outstanding trademark issues being resolved.   This also removed the concern with applicants having to make their intentions public before submitting a final application.

Now it appears the process will have a chance to move toward completion in an orderly fashion.  This will allow the major outstanding overarching issues to be addressed so applicants will be able to make more fully informed decisions on whether or not they will need or want to apply.

Two earlier proposals from the trademark protection community gained support and are now planned to be incorporated in some manner into the next version of the applicant guidebook. Those are the Trademark (TM) Clearinghouse and the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) proposals.   Both proposed measures will afford brand owners with improved protection mechanisms and reduce at least some of the costs associated with guarding against infringement.  Also receiving attention is a Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PDDRP).  This proposal looks at resolving issues should a new gTLD registry deviate from its initial charter and in the process result in a claim by a rights holder.  Within the current PDDRP concept a panel would review the claims and determine if there is infringement of the rights of a rights holder.

ICANN also took the conservative step of requiring strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. The registry-registrar model with a separation of functions has worked well under the current market structure, but going forward where brand owners needing to manage second level domain names for their own use, it may not be ideal.  Recognizing this, the ICANN board also asked the GNSO council for further study of the issue and to potentially provide recommendations for more flexible registry/registrar separation policies.

Currently there is no official estimate from ICANN for when applications for gTLDs may begin.  It’s possible the 4th version of the applicant guidebook could be ready by the ICANN meeting in Brussels 25 June 2010, and then it may be possible to estimate next steps.

After consideration of substantial public comment, both in support of, as well as in opposition to, the proposal to require EOIs be lodged for new gTLDs, the proposal has been withdrawn by the ICANN Board. The ICANN Board determined that the benefits of proceeding with an EOI proposal were outweighed by costs of potential delay to the new gTLD program and the lack of certainty about the date when the overarching issues of the program could be resolved. The ICANN Board resolved to continue to work toward the launch of the new gTLD program.

In other announcements within the context of the new gTLD process, ICANN will require strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. No co-ownership will be allowed.

There was also support for the Clearinghouse and URS proposals that were posted on 15 February 2010 for public comment. Subject to amendments in response to the public comments the proposals are expected to be included in version 4 of the draft applicant guidebook, which is planned to be published in time for the Brussels meeting of ICANN in June 2010.

The resolutions are a positive outcome for brand owners, as it shows that ICANN is beginning to incorporate additional protections for brand owners, and to focus its resources on resolving the remaining issues prior to launch of new gTLDs.

Follow this link to view the complete list of ICANN Board resolutions from the Nairobi meeting

One of the challenges facing ICANN since announcing the New gTLD program in 2008 is a reliable forecast for the demand for New gTLDs. In addition to helping satisfy the need to back up the economic assessment study, a reliable forecast is instrumental in determining the scope of both the administrative and technical infrastructure required.

ICANN is now asking for public comment on a recent proposal to seek expressions of interest from parties interesting in applying for new gTLDs. The public comment period will extend until 11 December 2009., Interested parties are encouraged to offer support, provide constructive criticism, or put forward suggestions as to the content and requirements of an EOI.

Some suggestions which have been proposed so far are:

• The EOI should include, at a minimum, the name string applied for, name of the applying entity and contact information.
• An accompanying fee of $50,000 to be later credited to the full application fee ($185,000). The idea of the fee is to help ensure interest from only serious participants.
• Stipulation that only EOI applicants be allowed to participate in the first round of applications.

ICANN staff are expected to review the comments and provide a plan for board consideration at ICANN’s next board meeting 9 December 2009.

Details on how to provide your comment, and guidelines for input into the EOI, can be viewed by clicking here.

The recent ICANN meeting in Seoul South Korea resulted a great deal of information about IDN-ccTLDs and New gTLDs.

IDN-ccTLDs are internationalized domain names (IDN) for country-code top level domain names (ccTLDs) that use non-Latin language scripts to represent the name of the country (e.g. 中 国 in addition to .cn for China). The ICANN Board approved the IDN-ccTLD fast track process to move ahead as planned. Beginning 16 November 2009, countries can apply for an IDN that is a meaningful representation of the country’s name in its native script language. The applications will go through a detailed review and approval process, and there is a possibility of some IDNs being created late next year. Whether that could happen in time to allow a formal launch before 2011 is unknown at this time.

As for as New gTLDs, a definitive time-line for implementation of the initiative no longer exists. De-emphasizing the implementation date along with discussions at the meeting around the rights protection measures appears to be a positive signal to corporations and other trademark holders that there is greater interest in getting the process right, rather than just launching new gTLDs. There are two main right protection initiatives that are being worked in tandem. One is an IP clearinghouse, a proposed central database for trademarks, and the other is a uniform rapid suspension (URS) procedure. The URS is intended to complement current UDRP processes by reducing the cost and complexity of actions by legitimate rights holders against fairly obvious intentional infringement.

Previously there were estimates of 300 or more new TLDs potentially being approved for introduction with each round of submissions. However a proposal to introduce DNSSEC implementation into the approval process comes with a request from some in the technical community to limit the rate at which new top level names (both gTLDs and ccTLDs) are added per year ( e.g. to 100 or so) to avoid overloading the business processes for changing root zone records and the network or computer resources ahead of capacity upgrades.

The 3rd revision of the applicant guidebook has been made available for viewing and comment on ICANN’s website and the comment period extends through 22 November 2009. Both the IP clearinghouse and URS proposals are posted separately, and comments are being taken on those documents as well.

Set out below are a number of the key items noted in the ICANN Board meeting minutes with additional commentary for clarity:

ccTLD-IDNS

• Applications from countries will be accepted starting 16 November 2009
• Applicable to only established countries or territories at this time having script languages in one of the currently approved ISO languages.
• Once the IDN-ccTLD name is agreed, a country still needs to follow the standard IANA processes for selecting the manager of that IDN-ccTLD registry.
• It’s possible some ccTLD IDNs may be added to the root zone late in 2010 at which time a sunrise process could be announced by each ccTLD registry.
• Currently accepted launch periods and resolution procedures will be applicable for the new IDN-ccTLDs.

New gTLDs

• No estimated timeframe available for accepting proposals.
• Work remains on agreement and approval of rights protection measures.
• Introduction of New gTLDs may be limited to a maximum per year initially (could be as low as 100).
• Participating in the first round of New gTLDs may require submission of an expression of interest to allow ICANN to get a better estimate on demand and identify potential difficult cases so that any procedures can be modified prior to launching the formal application process.
• Public comment period extends through 22 November 2009.

With the potential for hundreds of applications for New gTLDs in the first round ICANN is looking to have a global roster of qualified reviewers in place.  So far the growing applicant list includes names from well known consultancies including Deloitte, Deloitte & Laga, Ernst & Young, GeoLang LTD, KPMG and Webb Henderson.

Given the reputation of these firms this indicates applications will receive a great deal of scrutiny and need to contain detailed and thoroughly documented support information.   For entities interested in applying for a new gTLD, this underscores the necessity of securing qualified assistance in preparing the application and operational plan.

The announcement with the current list of applicants can be viewed on the ICANN Website.