.LONDON Set To Enter General Availability With 50,000 Registrations
It’s now just over one month until .london commences its General Availability and all indications are there will be more than 50,000 applications (there is likely to be more than one application for many domains) by the time Phase One, the London Priority Period for registered trademark holders and Londoners, ends on 31 July.
General Availability commences on 9 September and there will be no restrictions on .london domains unlike most other regional and city gTLDs so it’s expected there will be huge demand.
Phase One of the launch commenced on 29 May, which was the start of a three-month launch period during which Londoners and London-based businesses received priority in the application process. Those who have applied through the ICANN Trademark Clearinghouse will also be given priority. The launch period will close at the end of July.
Gordon Innes, Chief Executive of London & Partners, the Mayor’s official promotional organisations for London said: “When we launched Dot London we wanted to ensure that Londoners had first choice of the new domain names. Two months into the priority period and it’s clear than many tens of thousands of Londoners have already taken advantage. I would urge anyone in London who’s considering a Dot London domain name to take advantage of the last few weeks of the priority period and secure their chosen domain name before someone else does.”
A number of leading London businesses have already set up Dot London websites as part of a pioneer programme to showcase the new domain. They include brands such as: London Symphony Orchestra, Nimax Theatres, Fortnum & Mason, Techhub, Metro Bank and Meantime Brewing, with many of these having their .london pioneer websites live.
One registrant, Meantime Brewery, is celebrating its role as a Dot London pioneer by releasing 100,000 bottles of limited edition Dot London lager.
“It’s been really important for us to be part of Dot London. Our roots are here in the capital but we now export to dozens of countries all over the world and having a Dot London website means our customers can see that we are part of this great city,” said Nick Miller, Chief Executive of Meantime Brewing. “It makes sense to me that London businesses should have a website that is inherently part of the city where they’re based and do business.”
British Government Continues Appalling Treatment Of Chagos Islands, Taking .IO Profits
The .io ccTLD has become popular among start-ups, but little do registrants know that the British government, who has forcibly removed the archipelago’s inhabitants from 1967 to 1973 to make way for the US military’s air strip at Diego Garcia, takes a cut of the profits from registrations.
The islands are now formally known as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and have no permanent residents apart from British and American military personnel, reports The Independent. Domain names for the islands have been available from a UK-based company called the Internet Computer Bureau for around £60 to £70 each, depending on registrar. Or around twice that if the registrants is outside the European Union. The former islanders though have no idea of the deal.
“Profits from the sale of each .io domain flow to the very force that expelled the Chagossian or Ilois people from their equatorial land just a generation or two ago: the British government,” reported GigaOM who broke the story.
Allen Vincatassin, president of the Diego Garcia and Chagos Islands Council, told The Independent: “We do not know what sort of income is being received from the sale of these internet domains and to what use it is being put. This another example of money being behind the backs of Chagossians.
“The Government should disclose how much money it has received and provides assurances that it will be used for the islands, including the resettlement that so many Chagossians want to see happen.”
Revenue from registrations though has the potential to benefit the islands, or at least the islanders should they ever be able to return following their shameful expulsion. Examples of ccTLDs becoming lucrative earners for countries or territories are .tv (Tuvalu), .me (Montenegro) and .co (Colombia).
“The British government granted these rights to ICB chief Paul Kane back in the 1990s. ICB gets to run .io ‘more or less indefinitely, unless we make a technical mistake,’ Kane told GigaOM. (ICB has so far run a stable .io namespace. It should be noted that Kane is a respected veteran of the infrastructure scene, and has been entrusted by ICANN with one of the 7 so-called “keys to the internet”.)
For more on this story from the original reports, go to:
gigaom.com/2014/06/30/the-dark-side-of-io-how-the-u-k-is-making-web-domain-profits-from-a-shady-cold-war-land-deal/
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-accused-of-profiting-from-sales-of-chagos-islands-io-domain-name-9574316.html
ICANN Updates New gTLD Auction Schedule
ICANN has posted an updated Auction Schedule, which addresses contention sets that had requested postponement of their auction pending finalization of the Name Collision Occurrence Management Framework (“Framework”).
When responding to an ‘intent to auction’ notification, applicants were provided the opportunity to request an auction postponement pending finalization of the Framework. The auctions for these contention sets (previously scheduled for August) have been rescheduled to 17 September 2014 or 22 October 2014 (based on priority), with no more than 20 contention sets in a single auction.
For specific details and planned auction dates for each contention set, please see the updated ICANN schedule [PDF, 311 KB] or the contention set status page.
As a reminder, applicants may request that an Auction Date be advanced. Such a request requires that each individual member of the contention set submit a request using the Advancement Form [PDF, 216 KB]. Advancement Forms should be submitted by the applicant’s primary contact via the Customer Portal.
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-30jun14-en
Sedo’s LLLL.COM Auction Ends Tomorrow
Sedo is hosting these days a LLLL.com domain name auction.The auction features 49 four-letter domains and will end tomorrow,July 3,2014.
At the time of writing this artcile, only six domain name included in the auction received bids :
Idat.com – $950
Touk.com – $219
Pxec.com – $199
OSVV.com – $199
Buow.com – $199
PMPW.com – $100
The auction brings 49 four-letter domain name to the market.All the domain names included in the auction have a reserve range of 100-499 USD.The highest bidder will have priority to acquire the domain name.
Here is the inventory :
gpmt.com
zdsn.com
zavg.com
sjbt.com
ycoa.com
duzn.com
dzof.com
gtjd.com
pakp.com
pxec.com
nsxu.com
nsxv.com
dvue.com
bekw.com
bvir.com
tuwv.com
owhp.com
tbwv.com
osvv.com
fxhl.com
pwhm.com
dhde.com
blmm.com
iibw.com
nqsc.com
idat.com
fgxd.com
ubyd.com
dvjw.com
vmvy.com
vycp.com
vydp.com
vymg.com
vyml.com
vynp.com
buow.com
muvl.com
ggbw.com
svau.com
mzyk.com
eonx.com
wvyt.com
zxmg.com
bvle.com
nykz.com
touk.com
pmpw.com
opze.com
kwpe.com
Yahoo Files Complaint for Two Domain Names : YahooPegs.com and YPegs.com
Yahoo has filed a UDRP ,seeking control of YahooPegs.com and YPegs.com domain names.The complaint was filed with the National Arbitration Forum a few days ago.
According to whois records, YPegs.com was first registered in April 2013, while YahooPegs.com was first registered in December 2012.
The National Arbitration Forum will examine if YahooPegs.com and YPegs.com domains are confusingly similar to Yahoo’s trademark,if the current owner has rights over it and if the domains are being used in bad faith .The disputed domain names will be passed over to Yahoo if it falls under all three of these stipulations.
The case is still pending compliance checks with the National Arbitration Forum .
