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ICANN: Applicants Respond to GAC Category 2 Advice on New gTLDs
In its Beijing Communiqué [PDF, 156 KB], the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) issued advice to the ICANN Board of Directors regarding New gTLD applications.
The Safeguards on New gTLDs: Category 2, section 2 of the Communiqué states: “For strings representing generic terms, exclusive registry access should serve a public interest goal” and includes a list of strings that the GAC “considers to be generic terms, where the applicant [was, at the time,] proposing to provide exclusive registry access.” The strings listed in Category 2 advice correspond to 186 applications. On 19 August 2013, ICANN inquired as to whether the applicants of these 186 applications plan to operate the applied-for TLDs as exclusive access registries.
- Applicants of 10 applications indicated that the applied-for TLDs will be operated as exclusive access registries.
- Applicants of 35 applications indicated that their applications currently state that the applied-for TLDs will be operated as exclusive access registries, but the applicants will not operate them as exclusive access registries.
- Applicants of 138 applications indicated that they do not intend to operate the applied-for TLDs as exclusive access registries and that their applications are currently consistent with this intent.
- Applicants for 3 applications did not respond to the inquiry.
View Applicant Responses »
These responses were provided to the New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) of the ICANN Board to inform its decision-making regarding the GAC Category 2 Advice. On 28 September 2013, the NGPC adopted a Resolution directing staff “to move forward with the contracting process for applicants for strings identified in the Category 2 Safeguard Advice that are prepared to enter into the Registry Agreement as approved.” The Registry Agreement provides that registry operators of a “generic string” TLD may not impose eligibility criteria for registering names in the TLD that limit registrations exclusively to a single person or entity and/or that person’s or entity’s “Affiliates” (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement). (See Specification 11, Section 3.d)
Based on this Resolution, applicants of the 138 applications mentioned above will be invited to the Contracting process by priority number, once eligible.
Applicants of the 35 applications mentioned above will be asked to submit a change request to align their applications and intent. Once an application change request has been approved by ICANN and the application becomes eligible, these applicants will be invited to the Contracting process in order of priority number.
For the remaining applications (10 indicating intent to operate as an exclusive access “generic” and 3 wherein the applicant did not provide a response), ICANN will perform an analysis to determine whether the Advice is implementable, then provide the NGPC with this analysis and if applicable, a proposal for how to implement the GAC Category 2 Safeguard Advice per the NGPC’s request in the Resolution.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-4-09oct13-en
ICANN: First Community Priority Evaluation Invitations Sent
ICANN is inviting eligible community applicants to elect Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) as a potential method to resolve string contention. Today, the first two invitations were sent via ICANN’s Customer Portal.
All invited applicants will have up to 21 calendar days to elect to proceed with CPE and evaluation will commence shortly thereafter. The evaluation results are expected to be available in two to three months from the evaluation start date,
Invitations will be sent on a weekly basis as applications become eligible for CPE. Information about the current status of CPE, including invitations sent, applicant election dates, and evaluation results will be reflected on the CPE page of the New gTLD microsite.
Learn more about Community Priority Evaluation »
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-3-09oct13-en
ICANN: Strategic Planning & Strategy Panels Schedules Updated – Comment Periods Extended, Aligned to Maximize Public Input
To provide more opportunity for community consideration and public comment on a draft ICANN Vision and 5-year Strategic Plan, the development schedule has been extended to accommodate two rounds of online public input, and community discussions at the ICANN Buenos Aires (November 2013) and Singapore (March 2014) meetings. In addition, to more tightly link the multi-stakeholder processes used for developing ICANN ‘s strategic, operating and budget plans, as well as for commenting on the ICANN Strategy Panels, the schedules for these processes have been aligned. Specifically, public comment schedules for Strategic Planning, Strategy Panels, and the Operating Plan and Budget have been adjusted to maximize community input. The corresponding schedules are illustrated below.
Strategy Panels – To provide more opportunity for community consideration and public comment on the Panels’ output—and to more clearly connect the Panels to ICANN ‘s multi-stakeholder strategic, operational, and budget planning processes, the Panels’ schedule has been escalated. ICANN President and CEO, Fadi Chehadé, is asking the Panels to provide strategic recommendations by the end of January 2014. (Panel membership will be announced shortly). Panel output will be posted for public comment 31 January—31 March 2014, and will be discussed by the community at the ICANN Singapore meeting in March. This allows time for public discussion and community engagement on the Panels’ output, and integration of comments and recommendations into the Final Strategic Plan, as appropriate. This schedule also enables the Panels’ recommendations to be factored into the FY2015 Operating Plan and Budget, which currently is scheduled for Board action by 21 June 2014.
Strategic Planning – The First Draft of an ICANN Vision and 5-year Strategic Plan will be posted on or before 28 October 2013 for public comment through January 2014. This will include community discussions at the ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires next month. Factored into the First Draft will be the extensive public input received thus far on ICANN ‘s key challenges and opportunities and on the eight strategic areas [PDF, 209 KB] highlighted by ICANN ‘s Board of Directors. Work and input on related initiatives, such as the Security, Stability & Resiliency Framework, and the Regional Engagement Strategies, also will inform the First Draft. Comments received on the First Draft, as well as on the output of the Strategy Panels, will be considered and incorporated, as appropriate, into a Final Draft. The Final Draft of ICANN ‘s Vision and 5-year Strategic Plan will be posted for public comment by early March 2014 and discussed by the community at the ICANN meeting in Singapore, before being finalized at the end of April 2014 and submitted for Board action.
Operational Plan & Budget – The schedule for development of, and comment on, the FY2015 Operational Plan and Budget is expected to run from January – June 2014. The draft schedule is illustrated below and is expected to include public comment and community discussion for the proposed FY2015 Operating Plan beginning in January, followed by comment and discussion of the proposed FY 2015 Budget beginning in April. This will include opportunities for community engagement on the proposals at the ICANN Buenos Aires and Singapore meetings. The FY2015 Operating Plan and Budget is schedule for Board approval by 21 June 2014. A final schedule for this process will be posted on 15 November 2013.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-09oct13-en.htm
Media Options Acquires MO.com Domain Name From .CO Registry
MediaOptions.com announced recently on its Facebook page that it has acquired the two letter domain name MO.com from the .CO Registry .
Andrew Rosener,CEO of domain brokerage Media Options, announced that a press release will be released soon .
“Press Release to come out soon but I wanted to announce that Media Options has acquired the MO.CO domain name from the .CO Registry!
We are very excited…more to come!”,said Andrew Rosener on Facebook .
Congratulations to both the seller and the buyer .
