Domainia Inc, announced recently the launch of StoreDomainina.com – a pre-registration and awareness solution for .Store nre gTLD.

You can read the press release after the jump :

“Within the next year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will introduce hundreds of new, industry-specific Top Level Domains (TLD), such as .STORE, to the Internet. The .STORE domain extension will act as an alternative option to .COM or .NET, designed specifically to provide a showcase environment and information exchange network for the store industry. .STORE will assist businesses in helping consumers instantly recognize you as a member of the store niche.

Store services are one of the fastest growing service industries in the world. On average, there are over 300 million searches a month for the word ‘store’ or ‘store services’, resulting in a staggering amount of page views annually. With this in mind, Domainia Inc is committed to educating its client base about the benefits of having a .STORE domain extension while creating awareness among consumers and enhancing the consumer experience worldwide.

StoreDomainia.com is a gateway of information for business owners. The site compiles a complete U.S. directory that includes businesses such as store establishments, stores, retailers, wholesalers, or online forums that can benefit from the .STORE extension. By pre-registering for a .STORE domain name on StoreDomainia.com, business owners can secure a better, more professional domain name for their passion. Registrants will be instantly identified as relevant and valuable members of the store industry, will stand out among their peers and appear stronger to online consumers, all the while increasing their Search Engine Optimization.

Any registrant that holds a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will have priority over any other registrant to be awarded the applied-for .STORE domain. Brand and trademark holders should pre-register early to protect their interest.

Domainia Inc is excited to participate in this new revolution of the Internet. Visit our website at http://www.storedomainia.com to pre-register your .STORE domain name today.

The Mission of Domainia Inc is to provide an avenue for businesses and individuals to market themselves in a way that results in increased online visibility, greater consumer confidence, and automatic relevance within their industry, currently unmatched by any other marketing tool available.”

[news release] Afternic, the world’s largest premium domain marketplace, and NameJet, a leading domain name auction platform, have been selected by dotStrategy to launch the .BUZZ top level domain (TLD), having just passed ICANN Initial Evaluation.

Afternic has been tapped to define and value the .BUZZ reserve auction list, and to provide marketing and sales support for premium domain names.  .BUZZ premium domains will be sold through the Afternic marketplace.  NameJet will be the exclusive auction platform for the .BUZZ Sunrise, Landrush and Premium Domain auctions.  Together, Afternic and NameJet’s services will provide the end-to-end technical and marketing solutions required to successfully launch the .BUZZ registry.

“We are thrilled to be working with .BUZZ to bring their premium domains to the market”, said Jason Miner, Chief Operating Officer for Afternic.  “We created the Afternic marketplace to provide more choices for domain buyers the world over, and working with registries like .BUZZ who are creating unique new domain name options, gives domain buyers more choice in finding the name that’s right for their business.”

The .BUZZ TLD provides registration space for domain owners seeking to label their internet-based content as noteworthy, or creating buzz around a brand, product, service, or event.  Appealing to content marketing groups, bloggers, advertisers and journalists, .BUZZ will be the destination for visitors seeking the latest information on a variety of topics.

“Leveraging the expertise of Afternic and NameJet is a crucial component of our go-to-market strategy.  Not only do we benefit from their proven technology platforms, we will be reliant on their established distribution networks to get .BUZZ domains into the hands of end users,” remarked Bill Doshier, President of dotStrategy.

“NameJet is excited to be involved with the launch of the .BUZZ registry,” said Matt Overman, NameJet General Manager. “Bill’s passion for social media and entrepreneurship is contagious. As consumers have more and more TLD options, .BUZZ will be well positioned to capitalize on the public’s need for real-time access to the latest news.”

In addition to the uncontested application for .BUZZ, dotStrategy has also applied to operate the Top Level Domain .FUN.

.BUZZ will be announcing Sunrise auctions in October, with Landrush planned for December, and domains available to the general public in early 2014.

About Afternic
Afternic is the world’s largest domain marketplace, offering millions of currently registered domains for sale through leading registrars worldwide that deliver millions of queries into the Afternic marketplace. Afternic is part of NameMedia, a leader in the acquisition, development and trading of digital real estate through a network of highly targeted websites and a marketplace for premium domain names. The company’s website development focuses on creating compelling online communities in niche categories. The company’s marketplace allows owners of premium domain names to sell domains, and for domain buyers to review the largest available inventory. Through its ownership of one of the largest domain portfolios in the world, its innovative website development platform, and its broad distribution, NameMedia now serves more than 50 million visitors to its network of websites and sells domains to customers in more than 100 countries. Headquartered outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, more information is available at www.namemedia.com.

About NameJet
NameJet is a joint venture between Demand Media, Inc. (NYSE: DMD) and Web.com Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:  WWWW), who together own four leading ICANN-accredited registrars (eNom, Name.com, Network Solutions and Register.com).  Launched in 2007 with core auction software and technical infrastructure operating since 2004, NameJet serves domain investors, Fortune 500 companies and their representatives, small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as a diverse and global mix of individual investors. It has processed more than 200,000 domain auctions, establishing itself as a trustworthy and transparent auction platform that is customer-focused and user-friendly. For more information, go to www.namejet.com.

About dotStrategy
dotStrategy is an Arkansas-based company, with a principal place of business in Conway, Arkansas. The company is the creation of Bill Doshier who formed dotStrategy in February 2012 for the purpose of applying to ICANN for the Top Level Domains .buzz and .fun.  The mission and purpose of the new .buzz Top Level Domain is to provide registration space for domain name registrants seeking to label their Internet-based content as noteworthy and as what’s happening right now. Creating buzz around a brand, product, service, news, event or location is the goal of advertising and marketing professionals. .buzz will be the prime online destination for Internet users seeking the latest news on a variety of topics. On a grand scale, .buzz will foster a “buzz community” where fresh local, national and global buzz align to offer worldwide updates of the latest news and events.

This news release was sourced from:
namemedia.com/news/news-releases/afternic-and-namejet-to-offer-auctions-and-premium-domain-sales-for-new-top-level-domain-buzz/

ICANN held a briefing in Brussels on Tuesday, June 25^th and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade was the leadoff speaker. We’ve reviewed some detailed reports from those in attendance, and the most startling and refreshing statement made by CEO Chehade was that new gTLD applicants will be managed as ICANN’s licensees – that he regards the registrant/user as ICANN’s “customer” and that is the party that ICANN primarily serves.

One source quoted him as saying, “”New gTLD Registries are our licensees: our clients are registrants”, while another had it as “Registrants are ICANN’s customers; not registrars, not registries”. Whatever the exact words, the sentiment is clear.

If that mentality permeates through ICANN – that registrants are to be regarded as primary customers, and not the bottom of the food chain — it will indeed be an overdue and very welcome sea change. Every comment letter submitted by ICA to ICANN always starts with an introductory statement that includes these words:

Its [ICA’s] membership is composed of domain name registrants who invest in domain names (DNs) and develop the associated websites, as well as the companies that serve them. Professional domain name registrants are a major source of the fees that support registrars, registries, and ICANN itself. (Emphasis added)

ICA is not the only representative of domain registrants operating within ICANN, but we certainly speak for a significant and important segment.

While CEO Chehade’s words are very welcome, we’ll be waiting and watching to see if they are backed up by real world actions that verify this commitment. And there are near-term actions that can validate that ICANN is truly serving registrants first.

For example, if registrants are truly ICANN’s primary customer, then the existing  statement of Registrants’ Rights and Responsibilities (RRR) should be beefed up to reflect that, as ICA recently urged (internetcommerce.org/Stronger_Registrant_Rights). Likewise, now that the “Trademark + Fifty” component of the “Strawman Solution” has been adopted (an unwise decision that short-circuited proper procedures, in our opinion) the trademark warning provided to prospective registrants must be significantly expanded to include data reflecting the fact that such warnings will be triggered not just by exact matches to high quality trademarks but by multiple variations that were the subject of a negative UDRP or court decision. In order to determine whether proceeding with a new gTLD domain registration may subsequently trigger a potential finding of bad faith registration in a UDRP or URS action, registrants need to be told of such factors as what TLD the violating variation was registered at, how it was being used, whether the UDRP decision was rendered by a single or three member panel, and whether the UDRP finding was subsequently reversed in a court decision..

In his other remarks, CEO Chehade indicated:

• The new Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) should be finalized within a few days, and the Registry Agreement (RA) for new gTLDs should also be final prior to the start of the upcoming Durban meeting.
• The first new gTLDs should launch this autumn.
• The Communique issued by the GAC at the Beijing meeting was “one of the best things that ever happened to the gTLD program” because substantive participation by and advice from governments is a positive sign. The New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) has been meeting weekly to deal with the advice, and will hold two more meetings prior to Durban in order to assure that assimilation of the GAC advice does not delay the new gTLD program.
• The new Generic Domains Division established within ICANN will focus on operations, implementation, and execution of the new gTLD program.
• ICANN will “enforce vigorously” against any breach of the commitments made by new gTLD applicants in their Public Interest Commitment Statements (PICS), in line with the view that registry operators are ICANN licensees.

Finally, we were intrigued  by a report that CEO Chehade had emphasized that ICANN was committed to seeing new gTLDs launch by autumn because the program was “cutting oxygen from ICANN and making ICANN sick”. Asked for further explanation, its source responded that the meaning was that ICANN had been all-consumed by the new gTLD program and needed to move on to other important work, such as security and Internet governance. Another source quoted the remarks as, “But we will get this program birthed because if we don’t, then the baby will start getting really sick. This program has been consuming energy and taking resources away from ICANN and preventing us from doing other things that we are also tasked with doing.”

There’s no disputing that the rules for and  launch of the new gTLD program have dominated ICANN discourse since the Paris Board vote in 2008 to authorize the program. We suspect that the launch of the program will bring multiple new challenges that will continue to consume significant ICANN resources – one rationale for creating the new Generic Domains Division may well be to contain that ongoing work within a single part of ICANN, while freeing up staff and other resources for sidetracked projects.

And to the list of items that CEO Chehade wants to move on to, we’d add one more on behalf of the registrants we represent – serious and comprehensive UDRP reform that addresses the many concerns that registrants have about the operation of the current system, and that produces a reliable, impartial, and consistent UDRP system for the approaching world of 1,000-plus gTLDs and additional UDRP arbitration providers.

This article by Philip Corwin from the Internet Commerce Association was sourced with permission from:
internetcommerce.org/Registrants_Rule