The  Coordination Center for TLD RU held a press conference on November 14,2011 to celebrate .РФ first aniversary.

You can read the announcement after the jump:

“On 14 November 2011, at the ITAR-TASS press center the Coordination Center for TLD RU held a press conference “Domain .РФ – a year in the open access” dedicated to the 1st anniversary of the launch of the new Cyrillic domain .РФ.

Andrey Kolesnikov, the CC’s CEO, opened the press conference. He gave an update on what happened to domain .РФ during the year. “The number of domain names registered in zone .РФ is close to one million and as of today amounts to 925,803 ones, – noted Andrey Kolesnikov. – The launch of the open registration of IDN TLD .РФ made history with 207,648 domain names registered on the first day and 61.7% of them already extended. More than a third of domain names are actively used. Interestingly, on average domain names in domain .РФ are longer than in the domain .RU, which is not surprising – even a long Cyrillic name of a site is much easier to remember.”

Marina Nikerova, the CC’s Council Chairperson, presented the CC’s forecast on the way the Cyrillic Internet space will be expanding. “Our projections for next year are moderate and we foresee some 12% growth. This is to say, the domain .РФ will make it for the 1,000,000 milestone by the end of next year.”  Andrey Kondakov, the Registrars’ Committee Chairman, and the Head of the ad-hock group on preparation of recommendations on amendments to the Terms and conditions of domain names registration in domains .RU and .РФ added that “I believe that the amendments introduced in the Terms and conditions of domain names registration of the two national domains will also propel the dynamic of their expansion.”

Alexander Panov, managing partner, hosting Community, highlighted that, “Late into last November, about 7% of domains in zone .РФ hosted unique sites. Today, their number is about 25-27%. This suggests that domain .РФ kicked up the crystalization of its own audience; the Cyrillic domain is becoming an independent segment of the market. However, there are impediments to the zone’s expansion: these are technical issues related to electronic mail, for one, which we estimate is going to take all IDN domains 2-3 years to resolve within. But apart for that, domain .РФ has begun to live on its own and function independently of the domain .RU.”

Alexey Korolyuk, General Director of registrar REG.RU, tried to find out what people really do with domains in zone .РФ: “We conducted a user survey asking them how they were going to utilize their domains in zone .РФ. As many as 21% of them referred to the task of “resolving their corporate needs”, while another 23% purchased domain names for personal use. Today, 35% of users already actively use Cyrillic domains and do not key in a site name in Latin if there is a Cyrillic analogue. I believe that domain .РФ will be rapidly growing and becoming increasingly popular.”

The US government has issued a tender for the operation of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a contract currently held by ICANN, and who is likely to again win the tender.

The new contract will require the winner to improve in the areas of transparency, independence and accountability, and is limited to bids from US companies.

According to an IDG report, “the contractor will have to provide documented evidence of ‘how the process provided the opportunity for input from relevant stakeholders and was supportive of the global public interest.'”

“The new also document includes clear and binding provisions on conflict of interest. The next IANA contractor will have to take measures to avoid any activity or situation that could compromise the impartial and objective performance of the contract.”

The next IANA contractor will have to take measures to avoid any activity or situation that could compromise, or give the appearance of compromising, the impartial and objective performance of the contract. They will also have to maintain a written and sanctionable conflict of interest policy covering both potential and actual conflicts based on personal relationships or bias, financial gain, employment and post-employment activities. Penalties can include dismissal of the IANA contractor.

The European Commission has welcomed the improvements in the new IANA contract, which they claim includes a number of their suggested changes.

“The new IANA tender is a clear step forward for global internet governance. A more transparent, independent and accountable management of the Internet domain names and other resources will reinforce the Internet’s role as a global resource,” said Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda.

The Commission has long maintained that a strict conflict of interest policy will markedly improve the quality of the decision-making processes of the next IANA contractor.

Furthermore, following Commission demands, the draft contract states that when introducing new Top-Level Domains (such as dot.museum or dot.movie), or modifying existing ones, the next IANA contractor will have to provide specific documentation demonstrating how the underlying decision-making process was supportive of the public interest.

The Commission believes greater respect should be given by the IANA contractor to respecting applicable law (such as EU personal data protection laws). The Commission will continue to take the initiative for such provisions in future IANA contracts as part of its efforts to ensure sustainable multi-stakeholder governance of the Internet, in the service of public interest, as a matter of both principle and efficient practice. In that context, it noted with regret that non-US companies are not allowed to compete for the forthcoming IANA contract.

The IANA functions have historically included:
(1) the coordination of the assignment of technical Internet protocol parameters;
(2) the administration of certain responsibilities associated with Internet DNS root zone management;
(3) the allocation of Internet numbering resources; and
(4) other services related to the management of the .ARPA and .INT top-level domains.

And according to the IDG report, “The anticipated period of the new contract is April 2012 to March 2015. The closing date for receipt of proposals is 4 p.m. Eastern Time, Dec. 12.”

An arbitrator with the National Arbitration Forum awarded Bing.travel domain name to Microsoft.Microsoft submitted a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum on October 12,2011,asserting legal rights over the disputed domain name .

Microsoft own many trademark registrations for the “Bing” mark all over the world.Therefore,it is more than obvious that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.Moreover,Microsoft contended that the respondent registered and used the disputed domain name in bad faith :

“Respondent registered and used the disputed domain name in order to divert Internet users from Complainant and thus to disrupt Complainant’s business. The domain name allegedly resolves to a website which displays links to Complainant’s competitors in the travel industry. “

The Panel ordered the disputed domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant .

You can read the decision here .

The Coordination Center for TLD RU announced that  .РФ is celebrating its first anniversary.  On 11 November 2010,domain name registrations in domain  .РФ  became accessible .

Here is the announcement :

“The Cyrillic domain .РФ to celebrate its first anniversary: a year ago, on this very day of 11 November 2010, domain names registration in domain .РФ became accessible for all comers. Domain .РФ already boasts of 923,770 registered domain names.

As of today, registration of 94% of domain names registered during the Sunrise period has been extended. The outcome of extension of the domains registered on the 1st day of the open registration is also impressive:  the launch of the open registration of IDN TLD .РФ made history with 207,648 domain names registered on the first day and 48%, i.e. 99,192 domain names, already extended. It is too premature to speak about the final number footing of extension of domain names registered in November 2010, as the Terms and conditions of domain names registration provide for a 30 day-long preferential domain names extension period. Prior to expiry of the preferential period the right to submit an application for extension of a domain name is granted solely to its former administrator. This means that the final tally of extension of domain names registered in November 2010 will become available only in December 2011.

Today, not only are Cyrillic domains registered steadily but they  found themselves rather actively used: 68% of the overall number of registered domain names has been successfully delegated, i.e. their information is placed with DNS servers of the top-level domain, which is a mandatory condition for domain names’ functioning.   As many as 25.4% of registered domains hosts unique sites and another 9.6% of the domains are used to redirect already to existing sites. By the number of registered domain names.РФ is 15th biggest European national domain, ahead of national domains of the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Norway and Montenegro. “

There are 927,019 .РФ domain name registrations up to date .