BrandShelter - A service of Key-Systems GmbH

ICANN: New gTLD Applicant Guidebook released

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) yesterday released a new version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook. This version contains updates based on community feedback and the recent consultations between ICANN's Board of Directors and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). The Board and GAC agreed to hold another meeting in Singapore on 19 June. The Board will listen to community dialogue at the ICANN public meeting in Singapore, and will continue to solicit comments on specific areas. Furthermore, the Board of Directors will consider approval of the New gTLD Program at an extraordinary meeting on Monday, 20 June 2011, during ICANN’s international meeting in Singapore.

ICANN: June Approval For New gTLDs Still Possible

Dorothea Marx — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In a joint statement with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the ICANN Board has underlined its hope to approve the new gTLD program at the upcoming Singapore meeting (June 19-24). The joint statement was a result of another meeting between Board and GAC to discuss the remaining issues related to the anticipated launch of the new gTLD program. This teleconference was the latest in a series targeted at addressing GAC concerns to ensure the stable and secure delegation of new top-level domains. ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush commented: “The discussions have resulted in significant progress, including improvements to trademark and consumer protections, assistance for potential applicants from developing countries, and other areas of the program.” Together, the Board and GAC reviewed twelve issues, comprised of 80 sub-issues, discussing each in depth.

Norid still evaluating .co.no domain extension

Jamile Tarabay — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In February CoDNS B.V. wanted to launch the General Availability period for domain names ending .co.no after having executed a Sunrise for trademark owners. Shortly before the start of General Availability, the .no registry Norid intervened and decided to After being removed from the list of forbidden domain names in 2001, .co.no was registered by ELINEWEB AS. In 2009 the name was put back on the list of forbidden domain names by Norid. Norid’s investigation shows that ELINEWEB AS is not the company which started offering registrations under.co.no. The problem is, that a domain on the list of forbidden names can’t be transferred to another registrant. The Whois information of .co.no still shows ELINEWEB AS as the owner. But the offering of registrations under .co.no was executed by CoDNS B.V. Norid is now checking whether such outsourcing of services is legal.

Details about blocking trademarks in .XXX Sunrise

Dorothea Marx — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The sunrise period for .XXX will run for up to 30 days starting early September 2011. Sunrise B is aimed at applicants from outside of the sponsored community. In general, these applicants will be owners of a qualifying trademark registration, who are looking to reserve names in order to ensure they are not registered as domain names by others. At the close of sunrise, if a conflicting application by another sunrise A applicant (of the sponsored community) has not been made, these names will be reserved from registration (blocked). Sunrise applicants using registered marks to qualify will be required to own, without qualification, a subsisting trade or service mark registration of national effect. This will need to be issued prior to the time of the application submission, in a jurisdiction were the applicant conducts substantial bona fide commerce in connection with the trade or service mark actually registered. The second-level domain will be required to correspond to the entire text of a text mark or alternatively, correspond to the complete textual component of a graphical or compound mark. A successful application to block a domain name by a single qualified applicant under sunrise B and not subject to a competing application from a sponsored community applicant under sunrise A, will be designated “reserved – trademark” or similar. It will be removed from the pool of names available for registration in future phases of the registry operation and the WHOIS information will simply list standard registry information. The corresponding domain name will resolve to a standard informational page indicating the status of the domain name as not available for registration or similar. Allowing the domain name to resolve is designed to prevent “synthetic DNS” or non-DNS resolution systems, from hi-jacking queries to these domain names. In the event that there is more than one qualified applicant under sunrise B, the name will be reserved in exactly the same way as if there were only a single applicant and there will be no refund or apportionment of fees amongst such applicants. If a name is subject to reservation by at least one sunrise B applicant, any sunrise A applicant for the exact same domain name will be notified of this, and will have the opportunity to withdraw the application(s) for the domain name. Also, the corresponding sunrise B rights holder will be notified of the sunrise A application for the domain name. Should the applicant proceed with registration, then the sunrise A applicant will not be able to claim lack of notice in any subsequent dispute proceeding. IPRota, a provider of rights protection and related services, has been contracted by ICM Registry to assist with the design detail and implementation of the .XXX rights protection mechanisms at launch. IPRota will process and validate all sunrise applications.

DNSSEC Available for domains in .UK name space by 18 May

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The .uk registry Nominet will accept DS records for third-level domains starting on May, 18. This will enable registrars to secure .uk domain names using DNSSEC. Currently, DNSSEC is deployed for .me.uk and .co.uk. The signing of the remaining second-level .uk zones will be completed by 18 May. DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone.

China Announces creation of State Internet Information Office and tighter Internet regulations

Dorothea Marx — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In a statement to the country’s State Council, the Chinese government announced the creation of the State Internet Information Office, which will be responsible for directing, coordinating and managing the country’s online content. “The new body should allow policy makers and top authorities to better coordinate the various regulatory bodies that oversee the Internet. This will allow for tighter regulations of the Internet.” Mark Natkin, managing director of Chinese research firm Marbridge Consulting, said in a statement to PC World.

Launch of .ee domain names including letters with diacritical marks in May/June

Jamile Tarabay — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Starting from June 13, 2011 letters with diacritical marks (õ, ä, ö, ü, š and ž) will be possible in domain names with the suffix .ee, which means that the .ee name space will include the full range of the Estonian alphabet. The .ee registry (Estionian Internet Foundation) has announced a reservation period for .ee domains containing letters with diacritical marks, which will take place between May 16, 2011 and June 5, 2011 – before the start of general registration of these domains on June 13, 2011. Only those Domain Names can be reserved that are identical to the Prior Right. A Prior Right can be any of the following: 1. a business name (including a self-employed person’s business name) entered in the Estonian Commercial Register or a name entered in the register of non-profit associations and foundations; 2 a trademark registered in Estonia; 3. the surname of the physical person as of the Application submission date; 4. the first name(s) and surname of the physical person as of the Application submission date. Rules regarding the period of reservation on the basis of a prior right for .ee domain names containing letters with diacritical marks can be found on http://www.eestiinternet.ee/eng/domain-regulation/rules-regarding-the-reservation-of-domains-names-with-idns. From June 6, 2011 until June 12, 2011, applications for reservation will be verified by the registry. If the application is accepted, the domain name will be entered in the list of reserved domain names. The domain can be registered by the applicant until December 31, 2011. As of June 13, 2011, the registration of .ee domain names containing letters with diacritical marks is opened to all interested persons on a “first come, first served” basis. For more information about details and prices, please contact your BrandShelter Account Manager.

.FR DNSSEC Opened to Registrars

Jamile Tarabay — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

On April 19, AFNIC opened DNSSEC to all its registrars. This was the final step of the deployment of DNSSEC which AFNIC started last September by signing the .fr and .re TLDs. Registrars are now able to ask AFNIC for domain names to be secured with DNSSEC. DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone.

ICANN Board Approves IDN Top-Level Domains for Algeria, Morocco and Serbia

Dorothea Marx — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

During its meeting on last Thursday, the ICANN board approved the IDN extensions “.Al Jazair” for Algeria in Arabic, “.al-Maghrib” for Morocco in Arabic and “.srb” for Serbia in Cyrillic. ICANN also approved the re-delegation of North Korea’s ccTLD, .kp to Star Joint Venture Company.

South Korea to Launch IDN TLD

Dorothea Marx — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The .kr registry will launch South Korea’s IDN top-level domain (meaning .korearep in English) with a Sunrise for brand owners from May 25 until August 16. The Sunrise application window will start on May 25 and end on June 21. Registrants during the Sunrise phase need to provide: - a Korean Trademark Certificate and - a Korean Business Registration Certificate. In case of valid multiple applications, the winner will be decided by lottery. The application window for the Landrush phase (August 22 – October 4) will start on August 21 and end on August 31. In case of multiple, valid Landrush applications, the winner will be decided by lottery. Any entity who resides in Korea can apply. Open registration will follow the Landrush and start on October 5, 2011. Domains under the IDN extension .korearep may consist of 1 up to 17 Korean word(s). English characters, number (0–9) and hyphens can us used, but at least one Korean word must be included.

Sunrise Applications for .XXX Domains Now Possible with BrandShelter

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

.XXX is a new sponsored top-level domain (sTLD), specifically designed for the benefit of the global online adult entertainment industry. In March 2011, ICANN authorized .XXX as a top-level domain name and granted ICM Registry final approval to operate the domain extension. The .XXX Sunrise is expected to start late summer 2011 and will be divided into two tracks A & B: Track A is for members of the Sponsored Community with either Trademark Rights and/or prospective Rights through Pre-Owned Strings in other TLDs. Track B is for Trademark Rights Holders outside the Sponsored Community. Rights owners from outside the Sponsored Community will have the opportunity to reserve and therefore block names at the .XXX registry so that they cannot be used as conventional web addresses. To block the domains matching your brand(s) in the evolving .XXX domain name space, please contact your personal BrandShelter Account Manager. http://www.icmregistry.com

IDN ccTLD request from Yemen successfully passes String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string for Yemen. The .AlYemen domain extension will be represented in the Arabic language and script. At the annual meeting of the ICANN Board on October 30, 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved, giving users the opportunity to choose domain names that represent their respective country or territory in non-Latin scripts. Requirements for requests: - a non-Latin script has to be used to represent the IDN ccTLD - the corresponding language has to be official in the country or territory - a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts) The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process proceeds in three stages: Preparation (Applicant): - selection of the IDN ccTLD - planning realization and management - preparation of the supporting documentation String Evaluation (ICANN): - selection of a string to represent the country - evaluation of the technical and linguistic string requirements String Delegation (ICANN): - determination of the entity that will manage the domain - follows the same process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs - string delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 27 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 17 countries/territories (represented by 27 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-15apr11-en.htm

Changes in the New Draft of the Applicant Guidebook for New gTLDs concerning Trademark Owners

Dorothea Marx — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has published the April 2011 Discussion Draft of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook for public comment. Here are some of the relevant changes concerning trademark owners: 1) A limited “loser pays” model has been adopted for the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS): Complaints listing twenty-six or more disputed domain names will be subject to a Response Fee which will be refundable to the prevailing party. Under no circumstances shall the Response Fee exceed the fee charged to the Complainant. 2) New TLD registry operators must offer two rights protection mechanisms during their launch phase: a Trademark Claims service and a Sunrise period. The Trademark Claims service claims registrants to certify not to infringe when registering a domain name that matches a registered trademark. In case of registration, the trademark holder is informed. The Trademark Claims service must be offered for at least 60 days after the start of General Availability and the Sunrise must start at least 30 days before General Availability. 3) The future manager of the Trademark Clearinghouse will validate that each submitted trademark is legit. Companies only need to submit a declaration and a single piece of evidence of use in order to get into the Clearinghouse, which enables them to take part in the Sunrise. Such a validation will not be required for participating in the Trademark Claims service, though brand owners will need to be listed in the Clearinghouse for both mechanisms. Evidence of use will also be needed to file URS complaints, but that can be done separately at the time of filing, with no need for a Clearinghouse registration. http://domainincite.com/icann-brings-loser-pays-to-domain-disputes/ http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-15apr11-en.htm

Upcoming Changes for .fr domains

Jamile Tarabay — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Law of 22 March 2011 has changed certain aspects of the legal framework for domain names in France. This will be the key changes coming into effect on 1 July 2011: --- Disputes between rights holders and holders of .fr domain names --- The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure for .fr domains will be suspended by WIPO on 15 April 2011, as no decision may be carried out after the deadline of 30 June. The dispute resolution procedure for obvious breaches of the Decree of 6 February 2007 (PREDEC) will be suspended as of 15 May 2011 for the same reason. AFNIC is currently working on the draft of a new procedure for resolving disputes. In the meantime, disputes can be brought before the courts or submitted for online arbitration by the CMAP (Paris Mediation and Arbitration Centre). --- Prohibited and reserved terms --- As of 1 July, AFNIC will amend the registration procedure for the terms included in the lists including the names of French towns. Applicants must state the grounds for registration requests. AFNIC will only be entitled to refuse a registration request if there is evidence it has been made in bad faith and lacks legitimate interest. --- Access to the list of .fr domain names registered --- As of 1 July, every day AFNIC will publish on its website the list of domain names registered on the previous day for viewing and downloading. In the coming weeks AFNIC will continue to consult the stakeholders on the means of implementing these provisions. http://www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/280/the-new-legal-framework-for-domain-names-the-things-that-will-change-on-1-july

Verisign Deploys DNS Security Extensions in .com Top-Level Domain

Dorothea Marx — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

VeriSign, Inc. announced that .com now supports DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. According to the ICANN TLD DNSSEC Report (2011-04-01), 65 of the world’s 306 TLDs are currently signed with DNSSEC. https://press.verisign.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=AFC0FF0DB5C560D3&version=live&prid=739246&releasejsp=custom_97 http://stats.research.icann.org/dns/tld_report/

Telnic Announces Launch of Two‐Character and Numeric‐Only .tel Names

Dorothea Marx — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Telnic Limited (http://telnic.tel), the registry operator for the .tel top-level domain (TLD), announced the launch of short (two‐character) and numeric‐only .tel names for the 1st June 2011. The launch will consist of two phases. All registrations will be on a first‐come, first served basis. Registrations can be from one to ten years. Landrush: a two‐week period starting on 1st June 2011 which will enable any individual or business to secure a short or numeric‐only .tel name at a premium registration price General Availability: starting on 14th June 2011 at regular registration pricing The following strings will not be available for registration in this round: Short domains: - all one‐letter domains (from a.tel through to z.tel) - all two‐character country code top level domains (ccTLDs, such as uk.tel for example) Numeric‐only domains: - all single‐digit domains (from 0.tel through to 9.tel) - all combinations of digits and/or digit and hyphen strings that contain eight or more characters (for example, 12345678.tel or 123‐5678.tel) Further information regarding short and numeric‐only .tel names can be found at http://telnic.org/short‐numeric‐only.html. Source: http://telnic.org/downloads/Telnic_Launch_Short_and_Numeric.pdf

Launch of the new extension .COM.DE starts with a Sunrise in June 2011

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The .COM.DE second-level domain extension will be launched with a Sunrise for trademark owners from June 20, 2011 until July 1, 2011. .COM.DE presents an opportunity for restriction-free registration of third-level domains in the .DE name space: a local presence is not required and there is no limit to the amount of domains each individual can register. .COM.DE is a third-level variant (sub domain) of the country-code top-level domain for Germany. .COM.DE is registered as a .DE domain name but the .COM.DE operator (CentralNic) does not have any affiliation with DENIC, the official registry of the ccTLD .DE. The launch schedule for .COM.DE is as follows: Sunrise: June 20, 2011 until July 1, 2011 Landrush: July 4, 2011 until September 14, 2011 General Availability: September 19, 2011 onwards The .COM.DE extension is operated by CentralNic, which already runs other second-level extensions such as EU.COM, UK.COM http://www.com.de

New Legal Framework for Domain Names in France Declared

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The President of the French Republic has announced the law to bring various French legislative provisions on health, labor and telecommunications into line with EU law. On 6 October 2010, the Constitutional Council had declared section L. 45 of the Post and Electronic Communications Code unconstitutional and set a deadline of July 1, 2011 for the legislature to provide a new legal framework for top-level domains corresponding to the national territory. The new law will take effect on June 30, 2011. All the French top-level domains (.fr, .re, .gp, .mq, .gf, etc.) are concerned, except for .pf (French Polynesia) and .nc (New Caledonia). A number of procedures established by AFNIC will be affected, for example those for resolving legal disputes will be changed. Furthermore, the law will open certain restrictions on the registration of domain names, and affect the opening of the .fr TLD to Europe scheduled for December 31, 2011. After its next Board meeting, to be held on 8 April, AFNIC will publish details about the upcoming changes. About AFNIC (Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération) Non-profit organization, AFNIC is in charge of the administrative and technical management of the .fr (France) and .re (Reunion Island) Internet domain names. AFNIC brings together public and private members: representatives from the French government, Internet users and Internet Service Providers (Registrars). Find out more: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do;jsessionid=?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000023751262&dateTexte=&oldAction=rechJO&categorieLien=id See article 19 of the law at: http://www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/278/a-new-legal-framework-for-domain-names-in-france

ICANN Approves New Timeline for new gTLDs

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

During its San Francisco meeting, the ICANN board has again approved a draft of a final timeline (http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/draft-timeline-new-gtlds-18mar11-en.pdf) for the introduction of new top-level domains. March 25 – Governmental Advisory Committee feedback expected April 15 – Publication of relevant edited extracts of the final Applicant Guidebook for 30 days of public comment. May 20 – ICANN’s final consultation with the GAC via teleconference May 30 – Publication of the final Applicant Guidebook June 20 –ICANN Board Consultation in Singapore to (presumably) approve the Guidebook http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-21mar11-en.pdf http://domainincite.com/new-tlds-have-a-timetable-again/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29

Launch of .ASIA IDNs in May

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

DotAsia will introduce Chinese, Japanese and Korean IDN characters under the TLD .ASIA in a Sunrise from May, 11 (Wed, 12:00UTC) until July, 20 (Wed, 24:00UTC). The registry will implement character variants for Simplified and Traditional Chinese; the Korean IDN characters do not include Hanja characters. Sunrise 1 is opened only for Governmental Reserved Names. In Sunrise 2, domain names matching registered trademarks may be registered. In the following Sunrise 3, entities registered in the DotAsia Community may apply for domain names corresponding to their registered .ASIA domains. For Sunrise 2 applications, applicants must submit bibliographical data in relation to the right that qualifies an applicant for the domain name applied for. The bibliographical data to be submitted include: registered mark, registration number, registration locality, application date, registration date, registered class (Nice Classification System - http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nivilo/nice/index.htm#), nature of entitlement (original owner, co-owner or assignee).

ICANN Approves .XXX Domains for Pornographic Websites

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Last Friday, during the ICANN meeting in San Francisco, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) finally decided to give green light to the long-awaited .XXX extension for websites with pornographic contents. The ICANN board members voted 9-3 in favor, while 4 board members abstained. This final approval of the clearly defined Web address for adult entertainment is celebrated as a “landmark decision” by the ICM Registry. After several years of discussions about the controversial .XXX suffix, moral considerations seem to be overcome. By creating an adult-only top-level domain, ICANN hopes to make the Internet safer. The establishment of a new internet domain for adult entertainment sites enables individuals to filter out unwanted .XXX material. In contrast to other generic domain names, this sponsored .XXX TLD will only be available to the adult entertainment industry. The International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) will undertake the supervision and monitoring of the application process. Trademark owners will be given the opportunity to reserve relevant domain names before going to the open market, enabling them to protect their brand names and intellectual property rights within .XXX. Until now, more than 200,000 pre-applications for .XXX domains have been submitted. More Information: http://www.icmregistry.com/news/welcomeapproval.php

Syria Starts Registration under Top-Level Domain .SYRIA in Arabic

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The National Agency for Network Services (NANS) has launched the registration under the Arabic top-level domain .Syria. The registration process includes two stages: the first one started on March 15 and will end on June 15. Applications during this test phase will be accepted primarily. To resolve any disputes, applicants won’t get their domain until the end of the test phase. Domain registrations will be confirmed after resolving disputes at the end of the test phase. The date of confirmation will be considered as registration date; applicants may then pay their registration fee during one month after confirmation. The test phase will be followed by the general registration period which will be open for everybody. http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/2011031310208/Technology/syria-launches-registration-for-top-level-domain-in-arabic.html

DotAsia to Support Macao Government in the Development of the .MO TLD

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The DotAsia Organisation will support the Macao government in modernizing the operation of the .MO top-level domain. DotAsia (registry for .ASIA) formed a joint venture with a local conglomerate in Macao to create HNET Asia (http://www.hnet.asia). HNET Asia entered into a contract with the Macao government on 25 February 2011, to assume the operation of the .MO registry beginning March 12, 2011. In advancing the .MO registry, DotAsia will deploy Chinese domain names (including at the top-level), DNSSEC and other capabilities for the registry. http://www.dotasia.org/pressreleases/DotAsia-MONIC-PR--20110303.pdf

WIPO Launches New Online Tool to Facilitate Brand Searches Share

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has opened up a free, searchable web-based database of over 640,000 trademarks. At present, the Global Brand Database search interface allows users to access three WIPO databases – international trademarks registered under the Madrid system for the international registration of marks; appellations of origin registered under the Lisbon system for the international registration of appellations of origin; and armorial bearings, flags and other state emblems as well as the names, abbreviations and emblems of intergovernmental organizations protected under Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property – by means of one simple, user-friendly screen. WIPO said in its announcement that it plans to add national databases to the system in the future. http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2011/article_0007.html

IDN ccTLD Request From Bangladesh Successfully Passes String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of String Evaluation on proposed IDN ccTLD string for Bangladesh (string in English: Bangla, language: Bangla, script: Bangla). With this announcement, a total of 26 countries/territories requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation. Of these, 17 countries/territories (represented by 27 IDN ccTLDs) are delegated in the DNS root zone; with the remainder either readying to apply, or actively applying for, delegation of the string. http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-10mar11-en.htm

Further Discussion of New gTLDs Between ICANN and GAC in San Francisco

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In a letter to GAC chair Heather Dryden (PDF: http://www.icann.org/en/correspondence/dengate-thrush-to-dryden-05mar11-en.pdf), ICANN chair Peter Dengate Thrush said that he thinks the San Francisco talks should be final: “The Board looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the GAC in order to conclude the consultation process on the new gTLD program during the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Meeting.” Thrush states, that ICANN has agreed to compromise with the GAC wholly or partially on all but 23 of its 80 recommendations for the program. According to him, these remaining issues should be the focus of the two days consulting with the GAC in San Francisco. Cybersquatting is the major issue still unresolved. Fifteen of the 23 areas where the board still disagrees with the GAC concern trademark protection in new TLDs. ICANN has already officially resolved that the consultation with the GAC in San Francisco should be on March 17, but GAC chair Heather Dryden objected to that date in an email sent during the GAC/ICANN meeting Brussels (on 11-02-28 and 11-03-01). It was not clear from Brussels, but ICANN’s position that March 17 is the date now appears to be firm. The just-published agenda for the March 18 board meeting carries this line item “Outcome of Bylaw Consultation with the GAC on the new gTLD Program” (http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/agenda-18mar11-en.htm). Source: http://domainincite.com/icann-takes-firm-stance-on-new-tld-delays/ http://www.brandtlds.com/2011/03/new-timeline-for-new-gtlds-again.html

1 and 2 Character .INFO Domain Names now available

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Afilias has announced the opening of a submission period for the allocation of 1 and 2 character .INFO domain names. Afilias is accepting proposals from parties that wish to register one of the domain names subject to the Program. Proposals will be evaluated on the manner in which the applicant proposes to enhance the .INFO brand through its use of the domain name. The application form can be found here: http://www.info.info/webfm_send/142. A US$1,000.00 application fee, which is non-refundable, will be charged to each application. The deadline for receipt of all applications (both electronic and print versions) is 12:00 UTC on 30 April 2011. http://www.info.info/1and2character

Sunrise Phase for Registering Second-Level Domains under .SA has Ended

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Sunrise phase of registering second-level domains under .SA is over now. The .SA registry SaudiNIC will notify all registrants, who have submitted second-level domain name applications during the Sunrise phase of their application results before the beginning of the Landrush phase. All applicants who did not qualify for the Sunrise phase may apply for second-level .SA domains during the Landrush, which begins on 2nd May 2011. Only registrants of existing third-level domains could apply for the corresponding second-level .SA domain during Sunrise. During Landrush domains will be allocated following the first-come, first-served principle. http://nic.sa/page.php?page=9&lang=1 http://www.brandshelter.com/en/news/index.php?sid=52

Internet use in Libya suppressed

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Because of the protests against his regime, the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi is now suppressing the Internet traffic almost completely. Since last Thursday at about 17.30 CET, there is only little traffic, Google's Transparency report shows. Both the unencrypted Google searches as well as services such as Blogger, the social network Orkut, Google Mail, and YouTube are blocked. Other service providers are also affected. Web sites that are hosted in Libya don’t give an answer, even the DNS does not work, so domain names don’t resolve. Traffic reports from security firms indicate that the traffic into and out of the country is gone. http://www.zdnet.de/news/digitale_wirtschaft_internet_ebusiness_libyen_ist_komplett_offline_story-39002364-41549816-1.htm

Qatar-Specific Arabic Domains Available in March

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Domains under the Qatar IDN TLD .qatar in Arabic will be available starting in March. Government entities and registered trademark holders will be given priority during the different launch phases. Domain names will be made available to the public by August of this year. The IDN TLD is managed by ictQATAR through the Qatar Domain Names Registry. Qatar received the official delegation for its Arabic domains by ICANN in December 2010. We will inform you about the launch details as soon as they become available. http://www.ict.gov.qa/output/Page2120.asp http://www.ag-ip-news.com/GetArticle.asp?Art_ID=8819&lang=en

June 2011 ICANN Meeting to be Held in Singapore

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN announced that ICANN’s 19-24 June 2011 Public Meeting will be held in Singapore. The meeting was supposed to be held in Amman, Jordan. But security concerns and unrest in the region prompted ICANN to change the location. The Board reluctantly made its decision after closely monitoring the rapidly changing developments affecting the Middle East. The decision reflects the Board’s view that regional developments could have a negative impact on attendance at the meeting. More details about the meeting location will be forthcoming soon. http://blog.icann.org/2011/02/middle-east-developments-interfere-with-icann-41-jordan-meeting/ http://blog.icann.org/2011/02/june-2011-icann-meeting-to-be-held-in-singapore/

Go Live of .CO.NO Postponed to March 25, 2011

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The .CO.NO registry has postponed the Go Live of .CO.NO at very short notice to Friday, March 25, 2011 (2:00 pm UTC). As of March 25, 2011, .CO.NO will be available for everyone on a first-come, first-served basis (Go Live). .CO.NO is a third-level variant (sub domain) of the country code top-level domain for Norway. .CO.NO is registered as a .NO domain name but the .CO.NO operator (CoDNS B.V.) does not have any affiliation with Norid, the official registry of the ccTLD .NO. .CO.NO domains will be open to everyone without requirements such as local presence or ties with Norway. While the registration of ("real") .NO domains is only possible for organizations based in Norway, the name space of the sub-level domain .CO.NO opens up the opportunity for everyone to easily get a Norwegian web presence. The advantages of .CO.NO: - The registration of .CO.NO does NOT require a local presence in Norway. - Both companies and private persons are eligible to register .CO.NO domains. - There are no limitations regarding the number of .CO.NO domains one can register.

Premium .SG Domain now Available

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

From 1 March to 31 March 2011, a selected group of premium .SG domain names will be released for application. If the registry receives multiple applications for a domain name, it will be allocated to the applicant with the highest bid. Premium domain names are names that are limited in quantity and have a higher value than non-premium domain names. They include single character domain names, numeric domain names, domains of single digits, 2 digits, 3 and 4 digits as well selected domains of 5 to 11 digits. Details of the launch can be found in the following documents: -Application guidelines for premium domain names: https://www.sgnic.sg/sites/default/files/Application%20Guidelines%20for%20Premium%20Domain%20Names_1%20Feb%202011.pdf -List of premium domain names for application: https://www.sgnic.sg/sites/default/files/List%20of%20PDNs%20for%20application_1%20Mar%202011(R1).pdf -Timeline for premium domain name application https://www.sgnic.sg/sites/default/files/Milestones%20for%20PDN%20Application.pdf Source: https://www.sgnic.sg/news/special-names-limited-period-grab-it-now

Pre-Launch Priority Registration of Hong Kong IDN TLD for Existing .hk Customers

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

HKIRC, the .hk registry is currently accepting registrations under the Chinese IDN TLD (meaning .HongKong) by existing .hk customers. They can register their corresponding Chinese domain names before the start of public registration during a Pre-Launch Priority Registration (PLPR) Period until March 10. With the introduction of the IDN TLD on March 23, customers will enjoy the additional benefits of pairing (Chinese .hk and Chinese domain under IDN TLD) and bundling (English .hk and Chinese domain under IDN TLD). Domain name registration on a first‐come, first‐served basis is scheduled to start on May 31, 2011. https://www.hkirc.hk/pdf/Annex_A.pdf

IDN ccTLD Requests From Pakistan and Ukraine Successfully Pass String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD strings for Pakistan (.Pakistan in Urdu language and Arabic script) and Ukraine (.ukr in Ukrainian language and Cyrillic script). Up to now, ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 25 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 17 countries/territories (represented by 27 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. These are the three stages of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process: 1. Preparation The requester in the country / territory builds community consensus for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, and prepares the required supporting documentation. 2. String Evaluation: After the submission of an application, the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string are examined by ICANN. 3. String Delegation: Requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation. This follows the same ICANN/IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management. http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-01mar11-en.htm http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-25feb11-en.htm

Results of ICANN/GAC consultations in Brussels

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

During the meeting of the ICANN Board with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on February 28/March1 in Brussels, GAC representatives reaffirmed their demand for veto powers against a number of new TLDs and other concessions to brand owners. The continuing disagreement between governments and ICANN continues to delay the process for introducing new TLDs. The start date for the new gTLD program remains undefined. Background ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) plays a key role within ICANN, particularly with regard to providing advice to the Board on public policy issues. The GAC has been actively involved in the discussions on the introduction of new gTLDs and has regularly provided advice to the ICANN Board on a number of issues, which the Board has sought to address. The most recent GAC communiqué identified a number of issues associated with the introduction of new gTLDs that the GAC considers outstanding, or unresolved to the GAC's satisfaction. During the recent ICANN meeting in Cartagena, the ICANN Board of Directors and Governmental Advisory Committee agreed to meet at some time prior to the upcoming Silicon Valley/San Francisco meeting in order to devote significant time in the interest of resolving the outstanding issues the GAC has identified with the new gTLD process.

Syria’s IDN TLD approved

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently approved Syria’s Arabic TLD. Including the Syrian IDN TLD, the number of delegated Arabic TLDs is eight. The Arabic TLDs of Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Occupied Territory, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates have all been approved. The first IDN TLD that went live in May 2010 was the Egyptian. Source: http://thenextweb.com/me/2011/02/17/syria-gets-first-arabic/

ICANN will not Approve or Announce the new gTLD Program at San Francisco Meeting

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has released some additional information about the work being carried out by ICANN’s Board of Directors and the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to prepare for their upcoming meeting in Brussels on the new gTLD program. In addition to the Brussels consultation, a bylaws-defined consultation will take place on 17 March, the day before the Silicon Valley–San Francisco Board Meeting. Because of the timing of the bylaws consultation, the Board will not approve or announce the new gTLD program at that Board Meeting. As detailed in recent ICANN announcements, the Board and the GAC will hold a joint workshop to discuss the GAC’s concerns regarding the proposed implementation of the new gTLD program. Following the workshop, it is anticipated that the Board and GAC will meet for a bylaws-triggered consultation. The Board, ICANN staff and the GAC are working diligently to understand the GAC’s concerns and identify the areas of disagreement and possible solutions. Substantial preparatory work has been done, including the appointment of “issue leads” for the topics raised in the GAC’s Cartagena Communiqué, exchanges of draft issue papers and joint conference call discussions. The papers will be published prior to the meeting. Most ICANN Board Members and a strong contingent of GAC representatives are expected to attend. The timing and substance of any subsequent Board actions on the new gTLD program will depend on the outcome of the bylaws consultation. Source: http://blog.icann.org/2011/02/update-on-icann-boardgac-consultation-on-new-gtlds-2/

.UK: Second Sunrise phase for short domains starts on Monday

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The second step of the release of previously reserved one and two-character .UK domains will start on Monday, February 14, 2011. Here is the list of available domains: http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/47860_Reserved_domains_status_table_090211.pdf Details for Phase 2: Unregistered Rights Sunrise Application period: From February 14, 2011 (12:00 UTC) until March 16, 2011 (12:00 UTC) This phase is for: (i) any person who would have qualified for the Registered Rights Sunrise phase but missed the application deadline and for (ii) those who can show that they have unregistered rights in a mark which is identical to the domain name. Essentially, if you have goodwill associated with a sign which is identical to the domain name, and that goodwill would entitle you to prevent third parties from using the sign to misrepresent their goods or services as yours (the practice known as "passing off"), then if you or the person from who you acquired the right have had that goodwill since at least 1 January 2008, you will be able to take part. All applications for the same domain name will be treated the same, regardless whether they are based in a registered or unregistered right. If there are two or more qualifying applicants for a domain name, an open auction process will be used to decide the successful applicant.

Cyrillic IDNs for .ORG soon available

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

As of 19 February 2011 .ORG will support Cyrillic Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Registrations will be available starting on 19:00 UTC on a first-come, first-served basis. For Cyrillic IDNs registered between 19:00 UTC, 19 February 2011 and 19:00 UTC, 21 March 2011, no modifications such as owner change or registrar change will be allowed until 20 April 2011. This is intended to allow intellectual property interests to file UDRP actions if warranted. A Cyrillic Domain Name (in native script) must contain at least three (3) Cyrillic characters. You may choose Cyrillic characters, numbers (0-9) or hyphen (-) to compose your Cyrillic Domain Name. The length shall be limited within 63 characters (EPP limit). The following languages will be supported as part of Cyrillic IDN support. Request to register a Cyrillic IDN MUST specify one of the following language tags: Bosnian - BS Bulgarian - BG Belarusian - BE Macedonian - MK Russian - RU Serbian - SR Ukrainian - UK

IDN ccTLD Request from Georgia Successfully Passes String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string for Georgia. The .GE (Georgia) domain extension will be represented in the Georgian language and script. At the annual meeting of the ICANN Board on October 30, 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved, giving users the opportunity to choose domain names that represent their respective country or territory in non-Latin scripts. Requirements for requests: - a non-Latin script has to be used to represent the IDN ccTLD - the corresponding language has to be official in the country or territory - a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts) The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process proceeds in three stages: Preparation (Applicant): - selection of the IDN ccTLD - planning realization and management - preparation of the supporting documentation String Evaluation (ICANN): - selection of a string to represent the country - evaluation of the technical and linguistic string requirements String Delegation (ICANN): - determination of the entity that will manage the domain - follows the same process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs - string delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 23 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 17 countries/territories (represented by 27 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. Source: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-09feb11-en.htm

DNSSEC for .de as of May

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

DENIC, cooperative for the administration of the TLD .de, will launch DNSSEC (Domain Name Security Extensions) on 31 May 2011. "DNSSEC has successfully passed the operative phase in the testbed," says DENIC's CEO, Sabine Dolderer. The testbed was launched jointly by DENIC, the Association of the German Internet Economy eco e.V. and the Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) and ran from July 2009 to December 2010. About DNSSEC DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. Source: http://www.denic.de/en/denic-in-dialogue/press-releases/press/3116.html?cHash=52534a8357d3e0c8be494d1419c43cdd

.my now Supports 2nd level IDNs in Jawi

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

.my DOMAIN REGISTRY announced that the Malaysian TLD .my now supports Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) in Jawi (extended Arabic alphabet for the Malay language). Chinese and Tamil IDNs will also be implemented soon. The launch of Jawi IDNs is separated in three phases. In the current first phase until April 30, 2011, registration of Jawi IDNs is limited to government agencies and government educational entities. In the second phase registration is open to existing .my registrants. With the concluding third phase, Jawi IDNs will be available for the public. More information: http://www.domainregistry.my/faq.php?id=98 Source: http://www.domainregistry.my/readnews.php?id=110

ICANN aims for March deadline for new TLDs

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The resolutions from ICANN’s board meeting on January 25 wants the final GAC consultation to take place March 17, the day before the board meets in San Francisco. The board resolved that it “intends to progress toward launching the New gTLD Program, as close as practically possible to the form as set out in the Proposed Final Applicant Guidebook.” http://domainincite.com/breaking-icann-sets-march-deadline-for-new-tlds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29

ICANN Approves Numeric-Only and 1&2 Character .TEL Names

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has now approved the release of both short (such as JJ.TEL) and numeric-only (such as 442074676450.TEL or 88.TEL) .TEL domain names for registration. Details of how to register short and numeric-only .TEL names will be made available in due course. One-character ASCII (such as X.TEL), single-digit (such as 3.TEL) and names that may be confused with country-code top-level domain extensions will not be available for registration. Over 300,000 .TEL names have been registered to date in over 180 countries. Source: http://www.telnic.org/downloads/Short_and_numeric_tel_domains.pdf

IANA Created Three new ccTLDs

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

IANA has created three new country-code top-level domains in December 2010 to represent the new nations created by the breakup of the Netherlands Antilles. The new ccTLDs are: .BQ for Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, .CW for Curacao and .SX for Sint Maarten (Dutch part). All three appeared in IANA’s database on December 20, 2010. None of the strings are currently delegated. The governments of the respective nations will have to apply at IANA if they want to start using their TLDs on the Internet. Source: http://domainincite.com/three-new-cctlds-including-sx-up-for-grabs/

TRA Extends Registration Period for dotEmarat

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has extended the registration in the (dotEmarat) Sunrise period for an additional six months (probably until June 15, 2011) to give trademark owners opportunity to register their brands. In Arabic language, the string .Emarat has a meaning equivalent to “Emirates” in English. TRA, the sponsoring organization and a federal governmental authority in the United Arab Emirates will operate the domain using the same policies used for the .AE domain today that is published on its website. TRA is already delegating the United Arab Emirates’ ccTLD .AE. Source: http://tra.gov.ae/news_Registration_in_the_dotEmarat_Sunrise_period_has_been_extended_for_six_months-240-1.php

Saudi Registry Opens Second-Level Registrations Under .SA

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Saudi Network Information Center (SaudiNIC), the registry for .SA domains, has scheduled the registration of domains directly under the .SA extension. Up to now, the registration of domain names was only possible with second-level extensions such as .COM.SA (for commercial entities and registered trademarks) or .NET.SA (for ISPs, Internet services such as web hosting, portal sites, etc.). During the Sunrise phase for second-level .SA domain names, which lasts from January 10 until March 7, 2011, only registrants of existing third-level domains are qualified to apply for the corresponding .SA second-level domain names. These third-level domain names have to be registered before December 6, 2010. If SaudiNIC receives more than one valid Sunrise application from different qualified registrants for the same domain name, the first priority will be given to .GOV.SA. Otherwise, priority will be based on the earliest registration date. Eligible registrants for .SA domain names are: - an entity physically located in Saudi Arabia - a natural person, not underage, with a Saudi national identification card or equivalent document issued by the Ministry of Interior of Saudi Arabia - an entity with a registration or license issued by a pertinent authority in Saudi Arabia - an owner of a trademark or trade name that is registered in Saudi Arabia. The Landrush phase for .SA second-level domain names will start on May 2, 2011. The domains will then be allocated following the first-come, first-served principle. More information: www.nic.sa

ICANN's Board and GAC to Meet on New gTLDs

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

January 21, 2011 During the recent ICANN meeting in Cartagena, the ICANN Board of Directors and Governmental Advisory Committee agreed to meet at some time prior to the upcoming Silicon Valley/San Francisco meeting in order to devote significant time in the interest of resolving the outstanding issues the GAC has identified with the new gTLD process. Planning for that meeting has occurred and the Board and the GAC have agreed to meet on 28 February and 1 March 2011, in Brussels, at the Square Brussels Meeting Centre, Mont des Arts – Kunstberg, Brussels. The purpose of the meeting is to: 1.Identify the specific differences between Governmental Advisory Committee ("GAC") advice and the current implementation of the GNSO New gTLD Policy recommendations embodied in the Applicant Guidebook. 2.Through discussion among Board and GAC members, either: a. arrive at an agreed upon resolution of those differences, or b. for those issues not resolved, identify what differences remain. This meeting is not intended to address the requirements/steps outlined in the Bylaws mandated Board-GAC consultation process. The meeting will be open, scribed and streamed live over the Internet. Only GAC members, ICANN Board members, select ICANN staff members and subject matter experts will participate in the discussion, whether in person or remotely. It will be possible for interested parties to attend and observe proceedings. Remote participation facilities will also be made available. Papers to inform the discussions will be published prior to the meeting. Details of the agenda and logistics will be made available closer to the meeting. Background ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) plays a key role within ICANN, particularly with regard to providing advice to the Board on public policy issues. The GAC has been actively involved in the discussions on the introduction of new gTLDs and has regularly provided advice to the ICANN Board on a number of issues, which the Board has sought to address. The most recent GAC communiqué identified a number of issues associated with the introduction of new gTLDs that the GAC considers outstanding, or unresolved to the GAC's satisfaction. Source: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21jan11-en.htm

ICANN Board to Delegate Eleven new ccTLDs Next Week

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

During its meeting on January 25, the ICANN Board will probably approve eleven new IDN ccTLDs, representing four nations in Asia and the Middle East. The meeting agenda includes the approval of IDN ccTLDs for South Korea (“Hanguk”), Singapore (“Singapore” in Chinese and Tamil language) and Syria (“Sourya” in Arabic). Seven ccTLDs for India will be delegated in the country’s most popular languages. The upcoming delegations will push the number of TLDs in IANA’s database to over 300 for the first time. This week, the ccTLD for Thailand went live with Thai-language registrations. Also on ICANN’s agenda for the Board meeting next week is the re-delegation of the ASCII ccTLDs for Burkina Faso (.BF), Congo (.CD) and Syria (.SY) to new registry managers. Furthermore, the ICANN Board will decide on the Telnic request for release of numeric-only strings except for single-character labels and VeriSign’s request for release of numeric-only strings and numeric strings with hyphens under .NAME. The new gTLDs are also a topic of the upcoming meeting; among the issues to discuss are “Vertical Integration”, the Board/GAC consultations and an update on public comments on the Applicant Guidebook. Sources: http://domainincite.com/eleven-new-cctlds-coming-next-week/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29 http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/agenda-25jan11-en.htm

The new law on domain names is adopted on first reading by the French National Assembly

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

On January, 13, the French National Assembly adopted a bill to define the new legal framework for extensions corresponding to the national territory on first reading. On 6 October 2010, the Constitutional Council had declared section L. 45 of the Post and Electronic Communications Code unconstitutional and set a deadline of July 1, 2011 for the legislature to provide a new legal framework for top-level domains corresponding to the national territory. The text adopted on January, 13 takes into account the main points raised by the Constitutional Council and explicitly refers to the constitutional rights involved in the Freedom of Communication and Freedom of Trade. The new law also reinforces key principles for the players in the domain name market such as the “first come, first served” rule, or the accountability of applicants for domain names in relation to the rights of third parties. The draft will soon be handed over to the Senate, where it should pass during the coming weeks. About AFNIC (Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération) Non-profit organization, AFNIC is in charge of the administrative and technical management of the .fr (France) and .re (Reunion Island) Internet domain names. AFNIC brings together public and private members: representatives from the French government, Internet users and Internet Service Providers (Registrars). Source: http://www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/270/the-new-law-on-domain-names-is-adopted-on-first-reading-by-the-french-national-assembly

Temporary Drafting Group Work Session on New gTLD Base Registry Agreement Issues

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Temporary Drafting Group will hold a teleconference on 27 January 2011. The issues open for drafting/discussion during the call will include: - Suggestions for additional language for Specification 9 (the Registry Code of Conduct) - Proposed modifications to conditions related to the termination of a registry services agreement - Suggestions for clarifications to provision requiring advance notice of registry price increases - Concepts for continued registry operations instrument to provide continuity of services This is not a formal public consultation, but is intended to inform drafting which might make up a later public consultation. Any results from the Temporary Drafting Group will be included in documents that will be posted for public comment. No results from the Group will necessarily be used in any agreement drafts, but inputs from the Group will be considered by the ICANN Staff in making recommendations relating to questions discussed or posed to the Group. This third Temporary Drafting Group session will be held via teleconference on 27 January 2011 at 18.00 UTC, and is scheduled to last for 120 minutes. Source: http://blog.icann.org/2011/01/temporary-drafting-group-work-session-on-new-gtld-base-registry-agreement-issues-%e2%80%93-to-be-held-27-january-2011/

New Terms and Conditions for .SE

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

.SE registry will introduce updated conditions of registration (Terms and Conditions of Registration applicable for the top-level domain .SE effective from February 15, 2011) for the purpose of simplifying and clarifying the rules and regulations. The new Terms and Conditions of Registration contain new wording concerning alternative dispute solution procedures (item 7) as well as a clarification in item 9 concerning the handling of personal data. The new Terms and Conditions of Registration will be in force as of February 15, 2011 and will apply to all registered domain names under the .SE top-level domain. You will find the new Terms and Conditions of Registration on .SE's website: http://www.iis.se/en/domaner.

.SO Landrush Postponed

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

.SO registry today announced a postponement of the .SO (Somalia) Landrush phase by a week to January 17th, 2011, for precautious measures. Landrush: Open: Jan 17, 2011 Close: Feb 28, 2011 Landrush Auction: Open: Mar 14, 2011 General Availability: Open: Apr 01, 2011

Last Nine .DE Short Domains Released for Registration on January 12, 2011

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On January 12, 2011, 10:00 CET, the central German registry DENIC will release the last nine short domains under .DE for general registration. Up to now, these one and two letter domains have been excluded from registration due to legal disputes. During the first registration period of .DE short domains in October 2009, applicants obtained temporary injunctions in order to avoid the “first come, first served” principle in the release of short domains, and hence gaining priority rights for registration. As a result, DENIC was banned to release these short domains for registration. By now, the higher regional court of Frankfurt (Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt) has annulled the injunctions and affirmed the admissibility of the registration procedure. Registration procedure The allocation of E.DE, F.DE, G.DE, X.DE, Y.DE, Z.DE, DW.DE, HR.DE and SR.DE is carried out in a special procedure. Following the “first come, first served” principle, DENIC exclusively accepts registration requests per fax. There will be a 30-minute time-slot, a separate fax number and application form for each domain. More information on registration guidelines, as well as a detailed timetable, the corresponding fax numbers and application forms are available on the DENIC web site: http://www.denic.de/en/domains/general-information/registration-short-domains.html?cHash=3486f26050ac1dc3cbe6f5842dc70494 Source: http://www.denic.de/en/homepage.html

IDN Third-Level Domain Names Under .CO.IL and .ORG.IL Available as of December 26

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Starting on Sunday, 26th of December domain names written in Hebrew characters under .CO.IL and .ORG.IL will be available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis. During the preceding Sunrise Period, only certain applicants were allowed to submit a registration request, among them owners of registered Israeli trademarks and Israeli legal entities. The Internet Society of Israel (ISOC-IL) is the authorized registry of the .IL country-code top-level-domain. The non-profit organization aims at increasing Internet use in Israel and therefore expanded the domain name registration service by opening the public registration of Hebrew IDNs. Israel Internet Association VP Doron Shikmoni said, "Hebrew domain names will facilitate Internet access for the public, which until now may have refrained from going online because of the need to use the Latin alphabet. With the completion of the application of Hebrew domain names, it will be possible to access sites with Hebrew names from Israel and anywhere in the world." For more information visit: http://www.isoc.org.il/domains/registration.html http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000609869&fid=1725

.ME TLD Secured by DNSSEC

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Montenegrin Registry and Afilias, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure solutions, announced the deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in the .ME top-level domain. Predrag Lesic, Executive Director of the .ME Registry, noted “Enabling DNSSEC allows us to provide a safer and more trustworthy experience for .ME website owners and visitors.” DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. For more information about the .ME registry and how to register a .ME domain, please visit: www.Domain.Me.

ICANN Extends Public Comment Period for New TLD Guidebook

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Taking into account public comment and decisions made during ICANN’s Cartagena meeting, ICANN has extended the public comment period for the Proposed Final Applicant Guidebook and supporting documentation to 15 January 2011 (1200 UTC). In advance of the ICANN meeting in Cartagena (Colombia) on December 5 – 10, a number of people had requested additional time to comment on the proposed Final Applicant Guidebook for new TLDs, but the comment period ended on December 10. One week later, on last Friday, ICANN announced the extension of the comment period. http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-17dec10-en.htm http://domainnamewire.com/2010/12/17/icann-extends-public-comment-period-for-new-tld-guidebook/

Delay of new gTLD launch: ICANN “would rather do it right than do it fast”

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN’s Board of Directors plans several measures prior to launching the new gTLD program, which will probably result in an adjustment of the current timetable and a delay of the program’s start. At the ICANN meeting in Cartagena, Colombia last week, the Board announced a potential further delay in approving the Applicant Guidebook stating that more time is needed to allow the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to resolve the remaining concerns of the committee by allowing further review of the public comment on the final draft of the Applicant Guidebook, the economic analyses, and the final written proposals regarding issues affecting morality and public order. Revisions to the guidebook will be made as appropriate. In a letter to ICANN earlier this month, the GAC criticized ICANNs launch schedule citing that the Applicant Guidebook doesn’t adequately protect trademark rights and that the cost of the program could outweigh the benefits. The open issues that ICANN hopes to address with this delay look to be: trademark protection, mitigating malicious conduct, root-zone scaling, the economic consequences of the new gTLD introduction, the treatment of geographic names and the handling of “morality and public order” objections. The Board Resolution states: “[The ICANN board] directs staff to synthesize the results of these consultations and comments, and to prepare revisions to the guidebook to enable the Board to make a decision on the launch of the new gTLD program as soon as possible.” (http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-10dec10-en.htm#2) It is unclear if “as soon as possible” means that the current timetable will be kept. According to the current timetable, the first application round for new gTLDs is scheduled to start on May 30, 2011. ICANN’s Chair of the Board Dengate Thrush said: “We would rather do it right than do it fast”. (http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-2-10dec10-en.pdf) Definition: Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC): The GAC is made up of representatives of more than 100 governments and is intended to give governments from around the world a voice in ICANN’s multi-stakeholder, bottom up model of policy formation. More information: http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-10dec10-en.htm#2 http://www.icann.org/en/news/releases/release-2-10dec10-en.pdf http://domainincite.com/icann-new-tld-launch-delayed-again/ http://www.heise.de/netze/meldung/ICANN-beugt-sich-dem-Druck-der-Regierungen-1151599.html

Delay of new gTLD launch because of GAC concerns seems possible

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

During the ongoing ICANN meeting in Cartagena, different governments told ICANN they want a delay of the new TLD program. Members of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) are most concerned about the protection of brand owners. They question that the potential opportunities related to new gTLDs will outweigh the costs for these rights holders. During a meeting of ICANN and GAC, the UK representative, Mark Carvell, criticized the rights protection mechanisms such as the proposed Trademark Clearinghouse and the Uniform Rapid Suspension policies as still not effective enough. His view was supported by Germany, Norway and the Canadian GAC chair, among others. ICANN chair Peter Dengate Thrush argued for a meeting between GAC and the ICANN before the San Francisco ICANN meeting next March to discuss open issues. The GAC will probably submit its formal Cartagena advice today. Tomorrow the ICANN Board meeting will show if the GAC’s objections lead to a delay of the first application round for new gTLDs scheduled to start on May 30, 2011. The ICANN Board will then decide about the Applicant Guidebook. The US government’s recent request for a delay of the new gTLD program could also be a reason for ICANN to change the timeline again. In a letter the US Department of Commerce asked ICANN not to approve the launch of new TLDs during its meeting in Cartagena. The letter reminded ICANN that it has not completed the economic study it agreed to conduct for evaluating the potential consumer benefits vs. consumer costs associated to the launch of new gTLDs. Sources: http://domainincite.com/trademarks-may-delay-new-tld-approval/ http://domainincite.com/new-tlds-not-at-risk-but-delay-not-ruled-out/ http://forum.icann.org/lists/5gtld-guide/msg00013.html

CentralNic Releases the .GR.COM Domain Extension

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Trademark holders may now register domain names that match their brands under the new sub-level domain extension .GR.COM. GR is an acronym with different possible interpretations: It represents Greece's ISO code and Internet country code for the regional ccTLD (.GR /.COM.GR). It may also stand for generic terms such as "group" or "green". GR.COM launch schedule Sunrise: The Sunrise for trademark owners ends on January 9, 2011. Only validated registered trademarks may be used. Unique requests registered with the registry at the end of the period are successful. Duplicate validated requests will be sent to auction. Landrush: From January 10 until February 6, 2011 registration requests will be open to all interested parties. Unique requests registered with the registry at the end of the period are successful. Duplicate requests will be sent to auction. General Availability: As of February 8th, 2011 everyone may apply for GR.COM domains. The requests will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. .GR.COM is the 19th sub-level domain extension that combines a country code with the .COM suffix. As of November 18th, 2010 the sub-level domain GR.COM is part of CentralNic's services. More information: http://www.domain.gr.com

US Government Opposes Introduction of New gTLD Program in Cartagena

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The US Department of Commerce asks ICANN not to approve the launch of new TLDs during its meeting in Cartagena, starting on Sunday. In a letter to ICANN, the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, Lawrence E. Strickling writes: “I am writing to express my concern regarding the apparent failure of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to carry out its obligations as specified in the Affirmation of Commitments... .” The author reminds ICANN that it didn't complete the economic study it agreed to conduct for evaluating the potential consumer benefits vs. consumer costs associated to the launch of new gTLDs. Strickling also expressed concern of how ICANN changed its position on cross ownership between registrars and registries. Its position in May limited cross-ownership of registrars to registries to a maximum of 2%; the November Board decision allows full cross-ownership. Furthermore, the Department of Commerce complains about the short time frame for comments and review of the latest Applicant Guidebook. The comment period for the Guidebook is scheduled to close on December 10th, the same day the ICANN meeting in Colombia ends. Finally, Strickling writes, “While I am aware of the desire by some to move forward, the suggestion that the ICANN Board could make an informed decision regarding the timing of the launch of the new gTLD program in Cartagena is unrealistic.” In response to the letter, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom blogged: “In the Affirmation of Commitments, the US government and ICANN reconfirmed our mutual commitment to the multistakeholder model. ICANN confirmed our commitment to solicit public comment and to hear all voices. As with all contributions, ICANN will give DoC’s comments careful consideration as part of the implementation of the GNSO policy.” Sources: http://www.thedomains.com/2010/12/02/us-government-opposes-launch-of-new-gtld-program-in-cartagena/comment-page-1/ http://domainnamewire.com/2010/12/02/u-s-government-calls-for-delay-to-new-top-level-domain-names/ http://blog.icann.org/

.SO Sunrise has been extended

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Due to the high demand, the registry has decided to extend the deadline for .SO Sunrise Registrations until December 31, 2010. The new time table for the .SO launch: - Sunrise: until December 31, 2010 (UTC 23:59) - Landrush: January 10, 2011 (UTC 00:00) until February 28, 2011 (UTC 23:59) - General Availability: as of April 1, 2011 (UTC 00:00) http://www.soregistry.so/news/detail.html?nid=8

Afilias Secures .GI, .MN, and .SC Domains with DNSSEC

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services, today announced that it has enabled Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for .GI, the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for Gibraltar, .MN for Mongolia, and .SC for the Seychelles. "This is another step forward in Afilias' Project Safeguard rollout that is broadening DNSSEC deployment across our registry system," said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Afilias. "With more than 50 TLDs having now deployed DNSSEC, we are pleased to enable our customers to benefit from our global leadership on DNSSEC and our supporting registry technology." "Gibraltar is pleased to be able to provide our country of Internet users and domain owners with the confidence of their domain security" said Jimmy Immosi, .GI Manager. "Deploying DNSSEC, along with our registry provider Afilias, will allow our domain to participate equally with world leaders on this important Internet security milestone." DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. "Being an early adopter of the latest security technology is a significant opportunity for our country," said Baasansuren Burmaa, Director, MN Domain Registry. "We are excited to be able to provide this benefit to Internet users from Mongolia and others around the world who have adopted a .MN Web address." Mr. Marc Houareau, Executive Chairman of VCS Pty Ltd, the managers of .SC TLD added, ".SC domains are used not just in the Seychelles, but around the globe as a meaningful and short Web address. Signing the .SC domain with DNSSEC allows us to play a key leadership role in evolution of the Internet." Afilias' signing of these TLDs is part of its "Project Safeguard" initiative, bringing the number of secured TLDs on its registry platform to eleven. Afilias' Project Safeguard includes the rollout of DNSSEC across its registry and DNS platforms and will incorporate an education and training program for Registrars to facilitate their adoption and implementation through 2011. Source: http://www.afilias.info/news/2010/11/18/afilias-secures-gi-mn-and-sc-domains-dnssec

Russia's IDN TLD achieves nearly half a million registrations in one week

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Since the impressive results of the opening hours on November 11 (200,000 domains within the first six hours, see http://www.brandshelter.com/en/news/index.php?sid=43), the number of registrations under the Russian IDN ccTLD .RF in Cyrillic script has grown to 495,485. The current number of purchased Cyrillic .RF domain names is nearly five times higher than what the registry expected to be registered by the end of the year, namely 100,000 domains. The new Russian domain extension is one of the first country-code top-level domains in the world, which is not written in Latin characters. It is administrated by the "Coordination Center for TLD RU", which is also the registry for the .RU TLD. More information: http://blog.icann.org/2010/11/russian-idn-cctld-%D1%80%D1%84-opens-for-registrations-makes-history/ http://www.cctld.ru/en/statistics/rfdomains.php

ICANN’s Proposed Final New gTLD Applicant Guidebook now open to public comment

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has published its Proposed Final New gTLD Applicant Guidebook that describes the process of applying for new generic top-level domains. The document is now subject to public comment until noon UTC, December 10. During the 10 December Board Meeting in Cartagena the ICANN Board will decide about the timing of the launch of the New gTLD Program. The Board will either approve the Guidebook or direct that changes be made. The publication of the final version of the Guidebook on January 11, 2011 will be followed by a four-month global communications campaign. The aim of this campaign is to ensure potential participants in all regions of the world are aware of program details and how to apply. --- Important changes in the Guidebook --- -- Batching of applications -- (Module 1: Introduction to the gTLD Application Process) If the volume of applications received by ICANN significantly exceeds 500, the five months lasting “Initial Evaluation” of applications will be processed in batches. The first batch will be limited to 500 applications and subsequent batches will be limited to 400. ICANN determined that no more than 1000 new gTLDs will be added to the root zone within one year. -- Vertical integration -- (Module 1: Introduction to the gTLD Application Process) The vertical integration issue resolved by the ICANN board is now included. Registrars are now able to apply for new TLDs, but ICANN reserves the right to refer such applications to governmental competition authorities. -- Background Screening -- (Module 2: Evaluation Procedures) The section on applicant background screening now focuses more on intellectual property infringements, but disclaims references to terrorism. -- Morality and Public Order -- (Module 3: Dispute Resolution Procedures) The right of governments to object to TLDs on “Morality and Public Order” is now called a “Limited Public Interest Objection”: Governments may provide a notification using the public comment forum to communicate concerns relating to national laws, which is not valued as a formal objection. Such objections must be based on principles of international law. A thorough discussion of the topic "New generic top-level domains" makes sense for companies of all sizes and geographic approach. BrandShelter offers companies and brand owners the management of large domain portfolios, the registration of all domain extensions available worldwide and an extensive domain monitoring. The BrandShelter team also gives assistance in applying for a corporate TLD such as .BRAND or .COMPANY. Furthermore, the consulting about the new challenges for online brand protection as a consequence of the introduction of new generic TLDs is part of the BrandShelter services. --- Sources --- http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-12nov10-en.htm http://domainincite.com/icanns-new-tld-rulebook-is-out/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29 --- See also --- BrandShelter News (November 10, 2010): ICANN Board Votes to Enhance New gTLDs Competition http://www.brandshelter.com/en/news/index.php?sid=41 BrandShelter News (November 3, 2010): ICANN publishes an updated timeline for the introduction of new gTLDs http://www.brandshelter.com/en/news/index.php?sid=33

IDN ccTLD request from Morocco successfully passes String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string for Morocco. The .al-Maghrib (Morocco) domain extension will be represented in the Arabic language and script and managed by the "Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications" (ANRT). At the annual meeting of the ICANN Board on October 30, 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved, giving users the opportunity to choose domain names that represent their respective country or territory in non-Latin scripts. Requirements for requests: - a non-Latin script has to be used to represent the IDN ccTLD - the corresponding language has to be official in the country or territory - a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts) The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process proceeds in three stages: Preparation (Applicant): - selection of the IDN ccTLD - planning realization and management - preparation of the supporting documentation String Evaluation (ICANN): - selection of a string to represent the country - evaluation of the technical and linguistic string requirements String Delegation (ICANN): - determination of the entity that will manage the domain - follows the same process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs - string delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 22 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 12 countries/territories (represented by 15 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. Source: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-3-15nov10-en.htm

Successful Start of General Availability for Russia’s Cyrillic TLD

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

According to the Russian registry Coordination Center for TLD RU (http://www.cctld.ru/en/), the number of domain registrations under the Cyrillic version of .RF (meaning: Russian Federation) broke the 200,000 domains mark within the first six hours after the start of general availability yesterday. This speed of first-day registrations even exceeds the recent launch of the Colombian .CO. The preceding Sunrise period for trademark holders closed with 18,000 domains. Only Russian citizens and legal entities registered in Russia can register domains under the Cyrillic TLD .RF. More information: http://domainincite.com/new-russian-tld-is-a-smash-hit/ http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15669535&PageNum=0

DNSSEC for .IN and .ASIA

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Afilias, a global provider of Internet infrastructure services announced the enabling of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for the .IN TLD (India) and .ASIA. Registry operator for .IN is the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI, http://nixi.in/), .ASIA is operated by Dotasia (http://www.dotasia.org/). -- Definition of DNSSEC -- DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. More information: http://www.afilias.info/news/2010/11/11/afilias-and-dotasia-collaborate-dnssec-implementation-asia http://www.afilias.info/news/2010/11/09/afilias-improves-security-domain-dnssec

IDN ccTLD request from Serbia successfully passes String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string for Serbia. The .srb domain extension will be represented in the Cyrillic script and managed by the Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names (RNIDS). At the annual meeting of the ICANN Board on October 30, 2009 in Seoul, South Korea, the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process was approved, giving users the opportunity to choose domain names that represent their respective country or territory in non-Latin scripts. Requirements for requests: - a non-Latin script has to be used to represent the IDN ccTLD - the corresponding language has to be official in the country or territory - a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts) The IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process proceeds in three stages: Preparation (Applicant): - selection of the IDN ccTLD - planning realization and management - preparation of the supporting documentation String Evaluation (ICANN): - selection of a string to represent the country - evaluation of the technical and linguistic string requirements String Delegation (ICANN): - determination of the entity that will manage the domain - follows the same process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs - string delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 21 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 12 countries/territories (represented by 15 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. Source: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-08nov10-en.htm

ICANN Board Votes to Enhance New gTLDs Competition

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

New gTLD Registrars and Registries will Compete for the Benefit of Consumers 9 November 2010 ICANN's Board of Directors voted to allow new gTLD registries to own registrars, opting not to create new rules prohibiting registrars from applying for or operating new gTLD registries. Following over two years of community discussions, which had not resulted in consensus, the Board carefully considered expert economic advice, community comments, and numerous proposed approaches to registry-registrar cross-ownership. "In the absence of existing policy or new bottom-up policy recommendations, the Board saw no rationale for placing restrictions on cross-ownership;" said Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman of the Board. "Any possible abuses can be better addressed by properly targeted mechanisms. Co-ownership rules are not an optimal technique in this area." Under the Board resolution additional enforcement mechanisms have been added. New gTLD registry agreements are to include: (1) a Code of Conduct prohibiting any misuse of data or other abusive conduct arising out of registry-registrar cross-ownership; (2) robust auditing requirements; (3) graduated sanctions up to and including contractual termination and punitive damages; and (4) ICANN's right to refer competition issues to appropriate government competition authorities. Background: The cross-ownership provisions have varied over time and no formal "policy" on this topic has ever been recommended or adopted by ICANN. (For example, each of the seven new gTLDs delegated by ICANN in the 2000-2001 proof-of-concept introduced by ICANN in 2000 have featured some degree of registry-registrar cross-operation or cross-ownership.) The ICANN community has been discussing whether to continue, expand or remove the restrictions in current registry agreements that limit the existing registries from owning more than 15% of a registrar. Some have urged the creation of new rules that would for the first time prohibit registrars from applying for or operating new gTLDs. The ICANN Board had previously attempted to spur a consensus view, asking ICANN's GNSO to resolve the registry-registrar cross-ownership question. In May 2010, the ICANN Board encouraged the GNSO to develop a consensus based policy on this issue, but indicated that the Board would review the issue if no consensus position was reached. The GNSO recently reported that it has been unable to reach consensus. ### To read the resolutions passed by ICANN Board, go here: http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-05nov10-en.htm To learn more about gTLDs, go here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm SOURCE: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-09nov10-en.htm

.Qatar IDN TLD will be launched in early 2011

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

At the Special Meeting of the ICANN Board on October 28th, the IDN ccTLD delegation for .Qatar was approved, giving users the opportunity to choose domain names which are entirely written in Arabic characters. The Arabic .Qatar will be introduced by early 2011 and managed by the Qatar Domains Registry. With the integration of the Arabic version of .Qatar 16 IDN ccTLDs will be integrated into the DNS root zone. These 16 TLDs represent 13 different countries/territories. Up to now, ICANN has received 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 different languages. IDNs written in Arabic script: Since Arabic is one of the top non-Latin scripts to be used as IDN ccTLD, ten out of the total of 19 countries or territories that have passed the String Evaluation step in the Fast Track Process have requested strings that are in the Arabic script. The IDN ccTLDs of Egypt, Jordan, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar have been delegated and the delegation of the IDN extensions for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Oman, and the Syrian Arab Republic will be coming up soon. Details about the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process: Qualifications for participation: - a non-Latin script has to be used to represent the IDN ccTLD - the corresponding language has to be official in the country or territory - a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts) The request and evaluation proceeds in three stages: Preparation (Applicant): - selection of the IDN ccTLD - planning realization and management - preparation of the supporting documentation String Evaluation (ICANN): - selection of a string to represent the country - evaluation of the technical and linguistic string requirements String Delegation (ICANN): - determination of the entity that will manage the domain - follows the same process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs - string delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management More information: http://www.icann.org

IDN ccTLD request from Algeria successfully passed String Evaluation

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string .Algeria (Algeria / Al Jazair). ICANN has received a total of 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs representing 22 languages. 20 countries’/territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation, 12 countries/territories (represented by 15 IDN ccTLDs) are currently delegated in the DNS root zone. These are the three stages of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process: 1. Preparation The requester in the country / territory builds community consensus for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, and prepares the required supporting documentation. 2. String Evaluation: After the submission of an application, the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string are examined by ICANN. 3. String Delegation: Requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation. This follows the same ICANN/IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

Sunrise for Cyrillic domain names under .COM.UA and .KIEV.UA open

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Hostmaster Ltd., the registry for .UA domains, has announced a domain Sunrise for Cyrillic .COM.UA and .KIEV.UA domain names. Trademark owners can now register corresponding Cyrillic domain until November 17, 2010. The brands have to be composed of Cyrillic characters and registered in the Ukraine (a registration following the “Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks” covering the Ukraine is also possible). The domain name must match the registrant’s Cyrillic trademark exactly. The Sunrise is followed by a second phase from November 19 to December 19, 2010, during which set-term domain name registrations of ten (10) years will be accepted. Finally, open registration will start on December 21, 2010. The domain names must be composed of Cyrillic characters. At least one of these characters must not have a visually similar counterpart in the Latin alphabet.

VeriSign publishes time table for DNSSEC signing of .COM and .NET zones

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

VeriSign, the registry for .COM and .NET domains, has announced their time table for the signing of the .COM and .NET zones via DNSSEC keys (Domain Name System Security Extensions). The .NET zone will be signed as of December 9, 2010. .COM will follow in March 2011. DNSSEC applies digital signatures to DNS (Domain Name System) data to authenticate the data's origin and verify its integrity as it moves across the Internet. The security extensions are designed to protect the DNS from attacks, especially cache poisoning attacks, which can occur when hackers corrupt DNS data stored on recursive servers to redirect queries to malicious sites. With DNSSEC, poisoning a recursive server's cache is much more difficult because DNS administrators sign their data. The resulting digital signatures on that DNS data are validated through a "chain of trust" that starts with the public key for the root zone. According to a new .EU Insights report by the .EU registry EURid, 87 per cent of the world’s TLD still have to integrate the DNSSEC protocol. Only 37 of the world’s 283 active TLDs (13%) have enabled DNSSEC to varying extents. DNSSEC-enabled TLDs include .biz, .gov, .info and .org in addition to country-code extensions such as .be, .eu, .fr, .nl and .uk. Sources: heise.de, verisign.com, eurid.eu

.travel one and two-character domain names soon available

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Tralliance, the .travel registry, has decided to allocate the .travel one and two-character in a special release program: The registry asks for direct domain applications: From December 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010 anyone can send proposals for the registration of premium one and two-character domains to the registry. Tralliance will delegate a domain to the applicant with the best promotion proposal for this domain. The list of names that are only available to applicants with the best proposals can be found here: http://www.travel.travel/PDFs/1-2CharReleaseList.pdf. Trademark holders don’t have priority rights, but the registry plans to take trademark and marks into consideration if a rights holder applies for a domain. Tralliance has announced to release one and two-character names in one or more phases, so there might follow another delegation phase after the special release program.

ICANN publishes an updated timeline for the introduction of new gTLDs

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The first application period for new generic top-level domains will presumably open on May 30, 2011. This is the updated timeline for the introduction of new gTLDs: November 9, 2010: The final Applicant Guidebook will be released. This is followed by a public comment period of 30 days. December 9, 2010: The public comment period for the final Applicant Guidebook will end. December 10, 2010: (ICANN Board meeting in Cartagena, Colombia) The ICANN Board will approve the final version of the Applicant Guidebook. The Board will then implement any required final changes into the document. January 10, 2011: The Final Applicant Guidebook will be made public and a 4 month communications campaign will start. May 30, 2011: First applications for a new gTLD may be submitted. The special meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors on October 28th did not result in any resolutions concerning Vertical Integration, the GNSO New gTLD Recommendation 6 Objection Process, the GAC Issues Letter including Geographic Names or the affirmation of commitment considerations. Abbreviations: ICANN: Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers GNSO: Generic Names Supporting Organization gTLD: generic top-level domain GAC: Governmental Advisory Committee http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/new-gtld-work-plan-28oct10-en.pdf http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-28oct10-en.htm

Applications for short .uk domain names open on 1 December

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Applications for the previously reserved short .uk domains will open on 1st December, with a Registered Rights Sunrise phase for trade mark holders. The Sunrise period starts at midday (UTC) on December 1, 2010. Trade mark rights holders have until midday (UTC) on January 17, 2011 to apply for a domain that matches their trade mark. They will need evidence of using the trade mark in the UK prior to January 1,2008. If there is more than one verified application, domains will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with proceeds going to the Nominet Trust, an independently run charity focused on increasing access, safety and education on Internet issues. Any domains still available will then go forward to a second Sunrise period, when the rights qualification will be extended to unregistered rights holders. Any remaining domains will proceed to a Landrush period in which anyone can participate. Nominet will make further announcements regarding these stages in due course. A ‘Sunrise whois’ tool will be available from December 1, 2010, which can be used to check on the status of available domains. Applicants will be able to monitor the progress of their applications. All applications and supporting evidence will be published for total transparency. Source: http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/?contentId=7989 List with prospectively available domains: http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/46443_domains-to-be-released.pdf

"ß" now permitted in .DE domains – Sunrise (Grandfathering) period started yesterday

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Effective 16 November 2010, the LATIN SMALL LETTER SHARP S (ß) will be allowed as an independent character in .DE domain names. Holders of domains containing "ss" registered until Oct 26, 2010, 15:00 (CEST) can register the corresponding ß-domain since yesterday. This Sunrise (Grandfathering) period will expire on 16 November 2010 and be followed by a regular delegation on a “first come, first served” basis. More information: http://www.denic.de/en/denic-in-dialogue/news/2985.html?cHash=895741dd84

Two interesting news by blogger Kevin Murphy (domainincite.com)

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Trademark lobby keeps up pressure on ICANN Kevin Murphy, October 24, 2010, 14:53:57 (UTC), Domain Policy Introduction: The International Trademark Association is continuing to press ICANN into commissioning a study of the potential economic “harms” its new top-level domain program could cause. Read article: http://domainincite.com/trademark-lobby-keeps-up-pressure-on-icann/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DomainIncite+%28DomainIncite.com%29 Survey reveals demand for .brand TLDs Kevin Murphy, October 26, 2010, 17:57:37 (UTC), Domain Registries Introduction: Almost half of trademark-conscious companies are considering a “.brand” top-level domain, according to a survey carried out by World Trademark Review magazine. Read article: http://domainincite.com/survey-reveals-demand-for-brand-tlds/ Note: Key-Systems, provider of the BrandShelter service also took part in this study.

Agenda for ICANN board meeting on October 28 now public

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has published the agenda for next Thursday’s board meeting. Important issues will be the update on the timeline for the New gTLD Program, the Vertical Integration of registry and registrar functions as well as the GNSO New gTLD Recommendation 6 Objection Process concerning the “Morality and Public Order” (MOPO) part of the Draft Applicant Guidebook. The Governmental Advisory Committee advice on geographic names is also on the agenda. In addition, the board meeting will give an update on IDN ccTLDs and cover the delegation of the IDN version of .Qatar as well as the redelegation of the .QA (Qatar) TLD. More information: http://icann.org/en/minutes/agenda-28oct10-en.htm

Trademark registrations under Palestinian IDN top-level-domain now possible

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Palestinian National Internet Naming Authority (PNINA) has launched the Palestinian IDN ccTLD .falasteen (in Arabic). The registration is separated in two stages: Since October 17 trademarks holders may register their domain names in a Sunrise period (end of Sunrise: November 30). The open registration period for local and international individuals and institutions that follows the first-come, first-served principle will start on January 2, 2011. More information: http://www.pnina.ps/

ICANN approves Iran’s IDN top-level-domain

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ICANN has announced the successful completion of the String Evaluation process on the IDN ccTLD string .IRAN in Persian language (Arabic script) for the Islamic Republic of Iran. The “String Evaluation” is the second of three steps of the “Internationalized Domain Name ccTLD Fast Track Process” that was approved by the ICANN Board during its Seoul meeting in October 2009. The first step is “Preparations in country/territory” and the last one is an ICANN standard procedure of “String Delegation”. During the “String Evaluation”, the request for the selected string is verified by ICANN as eligible to be a representation of the country or territory. The “Fast Track Process” enables countries and territories that use languages based on non-Latin scripts to apply for a corresponding domain extension. Applications for permission to implement an IDN ccTLDs are available only to administrations of countries and territories or their designated representatives, and must constitute a meaningful representation of the country or territory name. At this time, ICANN has 33 requests for IDN ccTLDs, representing 22 languages in the Fast Track Process. Up to now, a total of 18 countries’ / territories’ requests have successfully passed through the String Evaluation; 12 countries/territories (represented by 15 IDN ccTLDs) are delegated in the DNS root zone; and the rest are either in or ready for the requesting country or territory to initiate the application for String Delegation. More information: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-15oct10-en.htm

New extension .CO.NO soon available

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

On November 1, 2010, CoDNS B.V. will launch its .CO.NO domain extension with a Sunrise phase for brand owners. The Sunrise gives the exclusive opportunity to register .CO.NO trademark domains with priority before anyone else can. Deloitte will validate customers’ requests based on trademark registries. After the Sunrise period, .CO.NO will Go Live on February 22, 2011. Then, everyone can register .CO.NO domains on a first come, first served basis. .CO.NO is intended to be a new gateway to Norwegian enterprises and individuals for international businesses and people. The .CO.NO extension will be open to anyone, with no requirement of local presence or tie with Norway. While the registration of .NO domains is only possible for organizations (among them companies) with a seat in Norway, the name space of the sublevel domain .CO.NO opens up the opportunity to get a Norwegian web presence to anyone interested in an easy way. According to the registry CoDNS B.V., almost 20 per cent of all registered country code-domains worldwide have a .CO.XX extension, such as .CO.UK for the United Kingdom, .CO.KR for Korea or .CO.NZ for New Zealand. 45 countries are actively promoting their .CO.XX extension as the internationally accepted domain extension. More information: http://www.domain.co.no

Updated information about .SO launch

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

1. Launch Schedule with exact time Sunrise: November 1st, 2010 UTC 0:00 – November 30th, 2010 UTC 23:59 November 2nd, 2010 CET 1:00 – December 2nd, 2010, 00:59 CET Landrush: December 16th, 2010 UTC 0:00 – February 9th, 2011 UTC 23:59 December 17th, 2010 CET 1:00 – February 10th, 2011 CET 00:59 General Availability: March 1st, 2011 UTC 0:00 March 2nd 2011 CET 1:00 2. Reserved, Premium, Restricted domain lists You can find the lists of reserved domains, premium domains, and restricted domains on the .SO website: http://www.soregistry.so/pdfs/dotSO_Reserved_Restricted_Premium.pdf The premium auction will take place after the general availability begins. We will inform you about the precise schedule for the auction as soon it is published.

Oman to offer Arabic domain names by 2011

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The IDN ccTLD request from Oman successfully passed the stage of String Evaluation during ICANN’s IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) ccTLD Fast Track Process. Oman plans to introduce Arabic domain names by mid-2011, the Oman Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced this week. The String Evaluation process includes several steps such as verification that the selected language is considered official in the respective country and that the string requested is a meaningful representation of the corresponding country name.

Launch of two Arabic IDN top-level domains announced

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This week, the National Information Technology Center (NITC) of Jordan announced the launch of the IDN top-level domain .al-Ordon. Shortly before, also the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United Arab Emirates notified the opening of the Arabic top-level domain .Emerat. Companies can use the Arabic domain names to specifically target Arab audiences. In a first step, registrations of .Emerat domain names will be open to trademark institutions. The delegation process begins on October 17 and ends on December 15. The registration of .al-Ordon will first be open to government institutes and ministries, diplomatic missions and trademarks for a period of time. After an intervening period of closure, the registration will then be open for anyone interested in domain names under .al-Ordon. In Arabic language, the string .Emarat has a meaning equivalent to “Emirates” in English. TRA, the sponsoring organization and a federal governmental authority in the United Arab Emirates will operate the domain using the same policies used for the .AE domain today that is published on its website. TRA is already delegating the United Arab Emirates’ ccTLD .AE. The extension .al-Ordon means “Jordan” in English. The sponsoring organization NITC is a governmental entity of Jordan and the current registry for the .JO domain, the Jordan ccTLD. The NITC will operate the domain using the same policies used for the .JO ccTLD today. Both registries NITC and TRA hope to increase the internet use in the countries Jordan and United Arab Emirates with the introduction of Arabic IDN top-level domains by breaking language barriers. The BrandShelter Team will inform you about registration details as soon as they are available. Sources:

ICANN permits internationalized domain names under .ASIA

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

DotAsia Organisation LTD has received the permission to start offering internationalized domain names under .ASIA by ICANN: http://www.icann.org/en/correspondence/pritz-to-chung-11oct10-en.pdf. 'Having a .Asia domain helps companies doing business with Asia or in Asia, save on cost without having to register all country code level domains within the region', says Leona Chen, Director of Registrar & Community Relations at DotAsia. The gTLD covers 73 countries as Japan or India and economies such as Hong Kong or Macau. According to the UN, the Asian region represents 60 percent of the world’s population. With the generic top-level domain.Asia the DotAsia Registry aspires to bring together the Pan-Asia and Asia-Pacific region for cementing a common regional identity. DotAsia is a non-profit membership-based organization located at Hong Kong which promotes the Internet development in Asia. Its mission is to sponsor, establish and operate .Asia as a regional Internet namespace with global recognition and regional significance. The gTLD for the Asian region was launched in October 2007.

New gTLD conference .nxt in advance to ICANN meeting in San Francisco

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0000

IT journalist Kieren McCarthy has announced a dedicated conference for new gTLDs called .nxt, planned for February 2011 in San Francisco. McCarthy is the General Manager of the .nxt conference which is hosted by the San Francisco Bay chapter of the Internet Society (SF-Bay ISOC). The conference web site http://dot-nxt.com already provides the conference agenda, and an extensive database of those who plan to apply for a new top-level domain. Implementation, business plans and marketing opportunities of the new gTLDs will be topics of the meeting. As the conceptual and technical support for new gTLD applications is part of the BrandShelter service, we will certainly attend the conference. It’s a good opportunity to prepare for the following ICANN meeting which will be held in San Francisco in March 2011. More information: http://dot-nxt.com http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100928_come_to_the_first_ever_dedicated_new_gtld_conference_nxt/

Companies get their domain names in the first two decisions of .CO domain disputes

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has carried out the first two UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) decisions for .CO domain names since the final of the .CO launch. WIPO resolved in favor of the complaining companies for lafitness.co and tilda.co. Twenty-one .CO UDRP cases have been filed since August. Recently filed .CO domain disputes are: CLS Rémy Cointreau going after e.g. Cointreau.co, Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited going after imperialtobacco.co. Source: http://domainnamewire.com/2010/09/28/first-two-co-domain-disputes-decided/

New gTLDs: ICANN Board announces new Applicant Guidebook & improvements

Jasmina Meiser — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The next version of the ICANN Applicant Guidebook for new gTLDs will be made public prior to the upcoming ICANN meeting in Caragena (Colombia) in December. This is one result of the ICANN Board meeting in Trondheim (Norway) on September 24-25. The next ICANN Board meeting will take place October 28. These are central outcomes of the meeting in Trondheim: 1. Trademark Protection In its resolution the Board announces a clear description of the term "substantive evaluation" at registration for the new version of the Applicant Guidebook. The evaluation is required on absolute grounds and use of the mark. Furthermore, the Guidebook shall retain the requirement for at least substantive review of marks in TLD Sunrises and the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). The time to respond to a complaint in the URS mechanism was shortened from 21 to 14 days, with one opportunity for an extension of seven days if there is a good basis for it. 2. Morality and Public Order (MOPO) The Board announced to accept the Rec6 CWG recommendations that are not inconsistent with the existing process. It states that these can be achieved before the opening of the first gTLD application round. The board will also work to resolve any inconsistencies. The ICANN "Cross-community" Working Group (CWG) had recently suggested using international conventions such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as a foundation for objections against new top-level domains instead of “Morality and Public Order”. The main argument is that there exists no international standard about what MOPO is. 3. Mitigating Malicious Conduct The Board describes the implementation work to address the mitigation of malicious conduct as sufficient to proceed the launch of the first new gTLD application round. The remaining issues should not delay launch. 4. Root Zone Scaling The ICANN staff will publish a model and a rationale for the maximum rate of new gTLD applications that can be processed over the next few years. Up to know this limit is expected to be about 1,000 new delegations per year. An objective method for determining the order of application processing that conforms to the limited delegation rate (not relying primarily on time-stamping) will be defined in the upcoming Applicant Guidebook. Up to now, the group of companies that are linked with an interest in applying for their own top-level domain includes the companies Canon, Nokia and IBM. Many initiatives have been found to apply for a geographic or conceptual new gTLD such as .nyc, .london, .paris, .köln, .sport, .surf, .free etc. See ICANN Board resolution:

Registration for Arabic domains under the IDN version of .SA starts today

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The registry for the TLD .SA, Saudi Network Information Center (SaudiNIC), will begin registering completely Arabic domain names under the IDN version of .SA today. The registration process is divided into two main phases: The first phase is dedicated to entities and trademark owners while the second applies to anyone interested on a first come, first served basis. Qualified registrants in the first phase are any entity or individual who has registered a trademark with the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry, including all governmental or semi-governmental authorities and organizations. Qualified registrants may register the Arabic domain name that corresponds to their appearance in the commercial registrations, trademark registration certificates, or the official name in case of governmental entities. During the first phase the domain name will be registered for the first entity that submits a complete and valid request. If another entity claims the same name, it can submit an objection. Source: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article147104.ece

New Domain Name Management System for .ES domains simplifies processes

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Red.es, the registry of the Spanish ccTLD .ES, has announced a new version 5.1 of the .ES Domain Name Management System. According to the registry, its main improvement is the integration of former external procedures within the system. Furthermore, the ability to use digital identity and signature was added. This will speed up processes as for example owner changes which then can be processed digitally without written documents. The changes shall be implemented in October.

BrandShelter takes part in a study about the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs)

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Key-Systems, operator of the BrandShelter service contributed to a survey of World Trademark Review (http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/survey/gtld2010/landing.aspx). World Trademark Review (WTR) is a bi-monthly magazine and daily email news service that focuses on issues concerning trademark professionals. The running study aims to understand attitudes and strategies around the launch of new top-level domains. The qualitative, anonymous survey is targeted at different groups to ensure that the views of a broad range of interested parties are represented. The groups included in the survey are: in-house trademark lawyers, private practice trademark lawyers as well as marketing and communications professionals plus representatives from already announced applications for a new gTLD. BrandShelter will inform you on the study’s results as soon as they are made public.

Large information needs concerning new TLDs on part of companies

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The upcoming introduction of new generic top-level domains (TLDs) opens up new chances for companies. With their own international, corporate domain extension in the style of .BRAND or .COMPANY they may consolidate their communication and reach a worldwide unique position on the Internet. A cross-industry study (http://www.noshokaty-doering-thun.com/fileadmin/downloads/Bedeutung_individueller_Domain-Endungen_f%C3%BCr_Unternehmen__Studienergebnisse_.pdf) of the Berlin management consulting firm “Noshokaty, Döring & Thun” (http://www.noshokaty-doering-thun.com) examined the relevance of such corporate domain extensions for companies. The majority of companies included in the study are not fully prepared for the upcoming development of the Internet. The survey(1) of “Noshokaty, Döring & Thun” addressed a total of 162 companies: 30 DAX companies, 50 MDAX companies, 30 online firms and 52 other companies. 84 marketing and online managers participated. For 74 percent of the companies in the study a turnover of more than 500 million Euros was reported. The knowledge about the new corporate TLDs in the companies is not exhaustive: More than a third of the surveyed company representatives (38 percent) claim to have not heard of the possibility of a corporate domain extension. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed (62 percent) had heard about it, while the majority of them (88 percent) have not yet worked intensively with the topic. Accordingly to the low information level, only a third of the companies (32 percent) plan the registration of a corporate domain extension. Furthermore, the majority of these companies (24 percent) have not yet concretized these plans. Overall, the study shows that companies still have a great need for information about the importance and possibilities of corporate domain extensions. The realization of a corporate domain extension is not the only part of ICANN’s (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) proposed liberalization of the TLD market. Also conceptual domain extensions such as .hotel, .food, .music or .sport as well as geographic TLDs such as .saarland, .nyc or .london will be possible with the forthcoming enlargement of the Domain Name System. Many initiatives and associations have been formed for the application purpose (e.g. dotBERLIN, dotSaarland eV, etc.). The number of TLDs is therefore expected to increase significantly in the near future. Currently, there are 21 generic TLDs such as .com and .net and around 250 country-code domain extensions like .de or .us available. An increase in domain extensions includes the task for companies to register their name and trademarks as domain names under these new TLDs in time. In addition, companies need to keep an overview of unauthorized registrations of the company name and related trademarks as domain names and address the problem. The same applies to typo domains and domains with phonetic misspellings. Thus, a thorough discussion of the topic "New generic top-level domains" for companies of all sizes and geographic approach makes sense. BrandShelter offers companies and brand owners the management of large domain portfolios, the registration of all domain extensions available worldwide and an extensive domain monitoring. The BrandShelter team also gives assistance in applying for a corporate TLD such as .BRAND or .COMPANY. Furthermore, the consulting about the new challenges for online brand protection as a consequence of the introduction of new generic TLDs is part of the BrandShelter services. (1) Return of the questionnaires by e-mail or fax, period: June – August 2010

Hebrew domain names

Jasmina Meiser — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Hebrew IDNs for the .IL name space will be available soon - the Sunrise period for Israeli trademark holders / entities is currently open for pre-registrations. Furthermore, the .IL registry is currently taking the steps required for the allocation of a Hebrew ccTLD in the ICANN Fast Track process for IDN country code Top Level Domains. More details: http://www.isoc.org.il/domains/idn_eng/

Launch of .SO for Somalia starts on November 1, 2010

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

.SO, the ccTLD for the Republic of Somalia will be launched in 2010/2011, starting on November 1, 2010 with a Sunrise period. The domain extensions available will be: - .so – For general purpose - .com.so – For commercial entities - .net.so – For networks - .org.so – For non-profit organizations The launch schedule is as follows: - Sunrise Period: Nov. 01 – 30, 2010 – for holders of eligible trademarks, submitting an application for the corresponding domain name. - Sunrise Auction: Dec. 01 – 15, 2010 – for domains with more than one credible Sunrise application - Landrush Period: Dec. 16, 2010 - Feb.09, 2011 – for any interested party, allowed are applications for domains, which were not previously registered or applied for during the Sunrise, or otherwise reserved or restricted by the Registry. - Landrush Auction: Feb. 10 2011 - Feb.28 2011 – for domains with more than one credible Landrush application. - Open Registration: starting Mar. 01 2011 – for the registration of available domain names on a first-come, first served basis. Sunrise domain names may be registered for a minimum of three years, and a maximum of ten years, Landrush domains and Open Registration domains for a minimum of one year, and a maximum of ten years. .SO domain names must be made up of a minimum of 3 characters and a maximum of 63 characters (excluding the extension). Only the Latin alphabet letters a-z, digits, and hyphens will be accepted. Domain names beginning or ending with hyphens, as well as domain names with hyphens on the third and fourth position are prohibited. The policy for the TLD .SO is liberal, there are no restrictions concerning the registrants, no local presence service is needed. The technical support for .SO is carried out by “GMO Registry”, operational support is provided by “SO Registry”.

New Version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A fourth draft of the Applicant Guidebook that describes the process of applying for new generic top-level domains was released by ICANN on May 31, 2010 along with explanatory memoranda and detailed analysis of comments received. The new version has important new content, for example: - Incorporation of trademark protections, including improvements to the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS), the Trademark Clearinghouse (TM Clearinghouse), and the Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Proposal (PDDRP); - Changes to rules for geographic TLDs, including a prohibition on country names as gTLDs; - A new gTLD Registry transition process model, including provisions for emergency transition in the case of prolonged Registry technical outages; - A model for providing centralized zone file access (ZFA) to aid in combating malicious conduct; - A revised base Registry agreement, the contract future registries must sign with ICANN, including new features such as: + Registry-Registrar cross-ownership language; + Emergency Registry transition provision; + Special new agreement provisions for governmental and inter-governmental organization (IGO) applicants -- based on negotiations with Universal Postal Union (UPU) for .post (subject to modification for different circumstances of other similar organizations); + New "hybrid" process for future amendments; + New provisions for centralized registry zone file access (ZFA). ICANN announcement: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-4-31may10-en.htm Here you can download the PDF: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-rfp-clean-28may10-en.pdf More information: http://www.brandtlds.com/

IDN country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) delegations for Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and UAE approved

Jasmina Meiser — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, the ICANN Board (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved the first IDN ccTLD delegation requests for the countries Egypt, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Russian registry is already accepting pre-registrationos of brand owners for domains ending with the IDN TLD РФ (meaning Russian Federation) in the so called “Sunrise”. The ICANN Board also supports the inclusion of Chinese characters in top-level domains as part of the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. Furthermore, the IDN ccTLD for Jordan has passed the so called String Evaluation stage. This means, the characters for the internationalized domain extension for Jordan are determined now. Thus, Jordan now enters the String Delegation step, the last step in the Fast Track Process, which decides about the delegation. Including Jordan, there are currently 13 countries/territories, that have successfully passed String Evaulation Fast Track Process means, that ICANN is accepting requests to fast track IDN ccTLD applications. The process enables countries and territories that use languages based on non-Latin scripts to apply for a corresponding domain extension. Applications for permission to implement an IDN ccTLDs are available only to administrations of countries and territories or their designated representatives, and must constitute a meaningful representation of the country or territory name. At this time, ICANN has 21 requests for IDN ccTLDs, representing eleven languages in the Fast Track Process. Read more about the IDN ccTLD Fast Track: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track

Survey Reveals Business with Typosquatting

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Averaged 280 typo domains are allocated to each of the 3,264 most popular .COM web sites ranked by Alexa.com. This is the conclusion of the study “Measuring the Perpetrators and Funders of Typosquatting"carried out by the two Harvard scientists Tyler Moore (Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) and Benjamin Edelman (Harvard Business School). The term typosquatting describes the registration of domains with typos or phonetic misspellings, which are similar to well-known internet addresses, e.g. examble.com as typo domain for example.com. Internet users, which enter the mistyped domain name into the browser, often reach a parked typo domain. Because of these accidental visitors, the owner of this typo domain generates money, e.g. when the misrouted visitors click the Google Ads on the typo web site. Well established web sites in particular are a popular object of typosquatting: For example, 1.865 typo domains aim at the web site hotels.com according to the study. For the .COM domains analyzed in their survey, the scientists Edelman and Moore created a list of possible typos. They compared this list with all 81 million registered .COM domains. The result were 1.9 million possible typo domains among all registered .COM names. With a manual comparison of a sample of these typo candidates followed by an estimation procedure, the scientists reached a final result of 938,000 likely typo domains for the 3,264 analyzed .COM web sites consisting of at least five characters. However, the effective number of typo domains could be even higher: Edelman's and Moores' survey excluded typo domains with typos in the domain ending (e.g. .CO or .CM). The Harvard academics analyzed the source of revenue of more than 285,000 of the identified typo domains and discovered a tendency of concentration of the typo business: They detected that 80 percent of the sites use pay-per-click ads. These ads often promote the correctly written domain and its competitors. This means, the owners of domains, which are affected by typosquatting, partly finance the causers of the abuse with their ads. Furthermore, the scientists revealed that especially the ad programs of Google and Yahoo are used for pay-per-click ads. The fact that 63 percent of the typo domains with Google ads could be allocated to altogether five ad accounts, was also valued as a sign for the concentration of the business by the Harvard academics. Sources: http://www.benedelman.org/typosquatting/typosquatting.pdf http://www.intern.de/news/neue--meldungen/--201002186952.html

Launch of .LU IDNs

Jasmina Meiser — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The registry of .LU has announced the launch of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) as of February 1, 2010. There will be a Sunrise period between February 1, 2010 and March 31, 2010. During this period only owners of already registered ASCII .LU names will be able to get the respective IDNs. Beginning April 1, 2010 IDN registrations will be performed on a "first-come, first-served" basis.

Introduction of .ORG Chinese IDNs on January 23, 2010

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The .ORG registry has announced the introduction of .ORG Chinese IDNs on January 23, 2010. The principle first-come, first-served applies. .ORG Chinese IDNs registered between January 23, 2010 and February 22, 2010 will be placed on Server Hold, Server Update Prohibited, Server Renew Prohibited, Server Transfer Prohibited and Server Delete Prohibited until March 25, 2010 to allow any Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) disputes to be initiated. While locked, the domains will not resolve and cannot be updated, deleted or transferred. This will provide intellectual property owners an opportunity to identify any potential infringements. Please contact your registrar for further details. A Chinese Domain Name (in native script) must contain at least one (1) Chinese character. You may choose Chinese characters, numbers (0-9) or hyphen (-) to compose your Chinese Domain Name. The (native script) length shall be limited within 14 characters. ASCII letters (A-Z same as a-z) are not permitted.

Launch of .EU IDNs on December 10, 2009

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

EURid, the registry of the European TLD .EU, will launch Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) under .EU on December 10, 2009, 11:00 CET (10:00 UTC). Pre-registrations are possible. If you are interested in pre-register .EU IDN names, please contact us. IDNs are domain names that may contain non-ASCII characters including letters with accents and characters in non-Latin languages, including Cyrillic and Greek scripts and e.g. the German umlauts ä, ö and ü. With the implementation of IDNs under .EU it will be possible to register domain names using the characters of all the 23 official languages of the European Union, including Cyrillic and Greek scripts and e.g. the German umlauts ä, ö and ü. The maximum length of an IDN under .EU is 63 characters. On the following web page you can find a list of all non-ASCII characters that will be supported: http://www.eurid.eu/en/eu-domain-names/idns-eu/supported-characters You are not allowed to mix character sets (for example Latin, Greek and Cyrillic) in a single IDN. This means each IDN must use characters from a single (1) character set only.

Cyrillic version of .RU - Sunrise period has started

Jasmina Meiser — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

As one of the first registries and in a sudden move, .RU offers IDN Top-Level-Domains. Until March 25, 2010 Sunrise Domain Registrations for the Cyrillic version of .RU (.РФ, meaning Russian Federation) are available for holders of Russian trademarks. Please contact our BrandShelter team in case you would like to apply for and register domain names under the Cyrillic version of .RU. The Sunrise Registration Procedure provides the following rules: 1. only trademarks registered not later than March 25, 2009 are subject to domains sunrise reservation; 2. if two or more trademark holders applied for the domain standing for trademarks with identical verbal designation, but registered under different classes of International Classification of Goods and Services, further registration of this domain will be provided for the trademark with an earlier registration date; 3. any issues for domains reservation with regard to trademarks, including well-known ones, registered after March 25, 2009, will be reviewed by the dedicated Assessment Board of the Coordination Center. Among others, trademark holders applying for a domain under Cyrillic version of .RU will be required to submit the trademark number and upon request, a copy of the trademark certificate and legal entity or entrepreneur registration certificate sealed by applicant's signature (via e-mail and by fax). After having received all necessary documentation, the review of the IDN application will take up to 10 days. Please note that under the Cyrillic version of .RU, only characters in the Cyrillic alphabet, numbers and hyphens will be allowed. No Latin or other characters will be possible.