Digital Brand News

ICANN has announced that IDN applications by, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have successfully completed the name string evaluation.  These four countries can now initiate applications for string delegation to a ccTLD manager.   It is possible the four IDNs could be online sometime after the middle of this year.

The Fast Track process was approved by ICANN on 30 October 2009 with requests being accepted 16 November 2009.  Since then there have been a total of 16 requests representing eight languages submitted under the process.

In the organization’s press release, ICANN CEO and President Rod Beckstrom referred to the ability of people to type in domains in their native language as a “pivotal moment in the history of Internet domain names.”   This is undoubtedly a positive development and a continuation of the evolution of Internet access, but not without its challenges.  There are still a number of hardware-side technical issues ranging from keyboards to numerous older generations of browsers still in use that will likely prevent a “hockey stick” adoption curve, but steady growth isn’t bad either.

On 18 December 2009 ICANN published a draft model for soliciting Expressions of Interest for new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs) for public comment.  The public comment period began with the publication of the draft document and will close on 27 January 2010.

The ICANN release states “The proposed model published today is not an operationally complete plan, i.e., it is not intended to include all the details that would be needed for implementation of a functioning process. Rather, it is intended to convey the detail necessary for robust public discussion. After the end of this public comment period, the ICANN Board will convene to consider the community feedback and decide on the path forward. A decision is expected in the first quarter of 2010. If approved, the final process and the opening date for EOI will be published.”

According to the draft, the EOI will also serve as a pre-registration mechanism, and the first round applicants of the New gTLD program will be limited to entities submitting the EOI/pre-registration. The intent is to require only a minimum amount of basic information on the entity which includes contact information, proof of legal establishment and good standing, disclosures concerning the participant’s background, and string and associated IDN information.

The EOI/pre-registration would require a US $55,000 deposit which would apply as a credit against the application fee (US $185,000). The draft proposes the deposit to only be refundable in explicitly specified circumstances.  The one such example provided was if the New gTLD program didn’t launch within a defined time period - 18 months from the closing date of the EOI/pre-registration period.

The draft proposal contains enough detail to give a good indication of the intent of the process and includes enough yet-to-be-determined placeholders that should achieve ICANN’s intent to have robust public discussion.  The proposal and details can be seen by following this link.

In November the ICANN board directed staff members to evaluate the potential of soliciting a formal expression of interest (EOI) as a means to quantify the level of interest in applying for new gTLDs, and the likely strings that will be applied for. At a meeting of the board on December 9 the staff presented their analysis and a draft proposal of the EOI process. The ICANN Board directed staff to publish the risks and considerations and a possible EOI model for public comment, which should happen soon.

At the ICANN Board’s February 2010 meeting the staff will prepare an analysis of the public comments and present those, and a proposed EOI process model for approval.

Just what is an Expression of Interest?

Basically an EOI is a pre-launch application to determine the number of anticipated new gTLDs and the proposed strings for those gTLDs. So far there have been some entrepreneurs that have publicly stated their interest in applying for a new gTLD in the hope of attracting funding support and interest from potential registrants within those gTLDs, but the level of interest from organizations with the ability to fund their own application is uncertain. The EOI may require a submission fee at a level that only serious applicants would be willing to commit to that could be used as an initial payment towards the application fee of US$185,000.

Given the support for the process, there appears to be a number of parties willing and anxious to put “the money on the counter” and submit an EOI. At least one of the supporters suggested that an incentive for submitting an EOI would be that first round applicants, if and when the gTLD process launches, would be limited to only the EOI applicants. Whether or not that criteria makes it into the EOI plan remains to be seen, but it’s an interesting concept with pros and cons.

For any company even remotely considering a gTLD at some point, now would be a good time to identify what gTLD name or acronym would be useful for their organization and evaluate the costs and benefits of having such a name at the top level of the domain name hierarchy, or the opportunity cost if acquired by a competitor. “Plan for the best and prepare for the worst” is good advice for any interested party.

ICANN continues work on two promising improvements in protection for trademark holders for second level domain names within new gTLDs. A Trademark clearinghouse (previously referred to as IP clearinghouse) is proposed for use in the start-up phase of new gTLDs. A registry operator could decide to use either:

• A sunrise process to give precedence to trademark holders with valid trademarks in the clearinghouse prior to opening the registry for general registration.
• Or, an IP Claim process advising registrants of trademarks on particular names prior to competing their registration.

The benefit for trademark holders would be only needing to register in a single clearinghouse database.

The second improvement is the development of a Universal Rapid Suspension (URS) process to complement the existing UDRP (Universal Dispute Resolution Process). The URS would support a lower cost, and a more rapid process to “suspend” a domain name than going through the UDRP. Unlike the UDRP, the URS process would not result in the domain name being transferred to the complainant, only suspension for the remainder of the registration period.

On November 16,the opening day for IDN ccTLDs, six applications from countries and territories representing 3 different languages were received according to ICANN’s blog post. ICANN’s policy is not to announce applicants until the applications are approved. However, recent press reports indicate Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, and China are among countries that have submitted applications so far. Other countries that have announced the intent are Bulgaria, Israel and Ukraine.

ICANN has introduced a plan to allow a country or territory to apply for ccTLDs that are represented entirely in non-Latin characters of their native language. To be eligible, the country or territory must be listed in the International Standard ISO 3166-1 (Codes for the representation of names and countries and the subdivisions). The exception is the additional eligibility of the EU, which has exceptionally reserved code.

The fast track process at the time is of limited introductory nature, and as such is being treated conservatively. The IDN ccTLD string(s) must be a meaningful representation of the name of the corresponding country or territory. A string is deemed to be meaningful if it is in the official language of the country or territory.

Applications for IDN ccTLDs under this proposal are planned to start 16 November 2009, however the implementation plan is not final and still subject to revisions.

The intent of IDN ccTLDs is to make the internet accessible to a broader audience by allowing full comprehension in their native language. At this time the potential threat to brands with trademarks in Latin based characters is unknown. Companies with low brand awareness in applicant countries will have the least risk. Companies that operate in a country that is successful in applying for an IDN ccTLD, and/or that have marks registered in the specific language would be advised to initiate planning to evaluate domain name registration as they would in any other ccTLD.

Link to the IDN Fast Track Proposal

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.

ICANN and the UPU have reached agreement paving the way for the creation of .post. The gTLD was initially proposed in the 2004 application round. This agreement marks the first sponsorship of a TLD by an inter-governmental organization and will likely serve as the model for similar organizations in the future.

About the UPU

The UPU was created in 1874 and is now a specialized agency of the United Nations.

Click here to read the full announcement