New gTLD updates from DomainFest in LA

By Adrian Kinderis

Last week, I attended the DomainFest conference in Los Angeles where new gTLDs continued to be a hot topic within the Internet community.

In the session ‘New gTLDs: Bonanza or Bust?’ ICANN Senior Vice President, Services Kurt Pritz discussed some interesting points regarding the gTLD program which I think are worth sharing with our readers.

As part of his presentation, Pritz discussed the following seven issues that he stated must be solved before the introduction of new gTLDs can go ahead:

1. Trademark issues
2. Preparation for and protection against malicious behaviour
3. The importance of identifying and addressing market impacts
4. The importance of a stable and secure root zone
5. Registry-Registrar separation
6. The three character requirement for IDN gTLDs
7. The Expression of Interest or EOI

This is positive news for many of us involved with new gTLDs as much progress has been made on these topics in recent times and it would appear that we are rapidly approaching a time where this process will be finalised.

Pritz advised that there will be updates to the Draft Application Guide (DAG) released in mid February, and a new version published in June to coincide with the Brussels meeting which he believed would be very close to the final application guidebook.

According to Pritz, a modified version of the EOI rules will be released in the next couple of weeks which will be based upon public comments and work from ICANN staff. Some of the rules are not expected to change, such as participation in the EOI being mandatory for those wishing to apply for a new gTLD in the first round and the US$55,000 application deposit which then will be put towards the new gTLD program application fee.

So, as usual there is a lot happening in the wonderful world of new gTLDs.

In the meantime, my dedicated staff continue to work with our clients and prospective applicants to make sure we are ready to meet their needs when ICANN stop listening to the very small number of self serving antagonists trying to sabotage this program and provide the global community with what it truly deserves – a gTLD market full of choice and competition.

Tags: DomainFest, gTLDs, ICANN, new gTLDs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 15:07 and is filed under ICANN, New gTLDs, Uncategorized.
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