The Domain Industry News » July 16, 2010

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• July 17, 2010
• 1:28

  .CO Open to All And Sundry on 20 July

   » ‎ DomainNews
  .CO domain names become available to everyone on 20 July following the end of the landrush phase for registrations that ended on 16 July.

• 0:36

  Topics censored for domain registration. Cn China

   » ‎ Domisfera

  In early July Domisfera published an article referring to the mails that sent CNNIC to further clean the registry.

  Changes and more changes that were made. cn fell in April 2010 to 8,254,681 and in May 2010 up to 7,620,043. At present, the latest available data is not in May but in June and the number of domains registered again drop to 7,246,686.

  According to the Registrar publishes the Register of the domain of China has censorship ( government regulations , implementation of the regulations ) on any domain that is related to:

  1. Olympics
  2. Pornography
  3. Game
  4. Prostitution
  5. Chinese Government
  6. Table tennis

  You may be able to register a domain related to these topics and pass the verification process of CNNIC, but there is no certainty that does not end up canceling CNNIC .

  

  

• 0:07

  July 2010: The End of the Beginning for DNSSEC

   » ‎ CircleID

  July 15, 2010 (yesterday) marked the end of the beginning for DNSSEC, as the DNS root was cryptographically signed. For nearly two decades, security researchers, academics and Internet leaders have worked to develop and deploy Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC was developed to improve the overall security of the DNS, a need which was dramatized by the discovery of the Kaminsky bug a few years ago.

  If researchers have been working on this for years, one might ask: why is this only the "end of the beginning?" The answer is, of course, that "overnight changes" usually occur only after a decade or more of hard work. Until recently, DNSSEC was often criticized as a solution in search of a problem. However, the now famous "Kaminsky bug," a cache poisoning exploit that DNSSEC fixes, changed all that in a hurry.

  DNSSEC deployment first became real when .SE (Sweden) announced in 2007 that it had signed its zone. Another DNSSEC leader, .ORG, managed by the Public Interest Registry, opened its DNSSEC testbed in the same year. Soon thereafter, the number of countries and other operators deploying DNSSEC in their infrastructure started to swell.

  Yesterday, ICANN, VeriSign and the NTIA, after months of careful work, completed the signing of the Root zone, fully enabling DNSSEC queries to be validateable down the "chain of trust." For the first time ever, it became possible to have a DNS query for a signed zone completely validated from an end-user's computer all the way to the root of the DNS.

  The seal of trust that DNSSEC now delivers at the root level of the Domain Name System is a testament to an idea whose time has come—an idea chaperoned by scores of engineers, technicians and policy makers, and executed by operators of networks and names. As DNSSEC deployment enters its next phase, let us take a moment to salute the work done by all those who have come before us, and all those who are in this with us.

  July 15, 2010 marks the end of the beginning for DNSSEC, and the opening of a new chapter in the task of securing the core infrastructure on which the global Internet relies. We are now in the era of DNS 2.0.

  Written by Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President & CTO, Afilias

  Follow CircleID on Twitter

  More under: DNS, DNSSEC, Security

  
• July 16, 2010
• 23:31

  Funky Ninth Circuit Opinion on Domain Names and Nominative Use - Toyota v. Tabari

   » ‎ CircleID

  Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. v. Tabari, 2010 WL 2680891 (9th Cir. July 8, 2010)

  Every time I see a federal appellate opinion on domain names, I'm vaguely reminded of the Country Joe song I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, whose course goes "And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?" Fortunately, domain name disputes do not lead to the senseless loss of life we experienced from the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, lengthy domain name litigation usually has little more strategic value. Invariably, the domain name litigation has less to do with rational economic decision-making and more to do with chest-beating and posturing.

  I bring this up because the Ninth Circuit's latest domain name opinion involves litigation that makes no financial sense for either side. The Tabaris are independent auto brokers that help their customers find and buy Lexus vehicles from an authorized Lexus dealer. They run a business called Fast Imports from the domains buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com.

  What is Lexus' problem with those domain names? The Tabaris are helping people buy Lexuses, so Lexus is going to get its fair share no matter what. The appellate opinion did not indicate that the Tabaris are crooks or trying to divert Lexus customers to other brands. So Lexus, why sue your friends? The opinion hints that Lexus was trying to improve dealer relations by squelching a broker who plays dealers off each other, but hey, that's fair competition.

  From the Tabaris' perspective, losing these domain names should not be intrinsically fatal to their business. The Tabaris could set up shop at any number of other domain names, in which case they would lose only the built-up clicks from existing links to the site (I wonder how many of those there were in this case) and any extra Google juice from having a seasoned domain name with the trademark in it. I always find it weird when appellate courts treat a defendant's domain name as the dispositive linchpin of communication between interested parties rather than just one of many SEO tools.

  Refreshingly, this opinion does not overestimate the domain name's value. However, it doesn't see any reason to consider a switch either: "the Tabaris needed to communicate that they specialize in Lexus vehicles, and using the Lexus mark in their domain names accomplished this goal. While using Lexus in their domain names wasn't the only way to communicate the nature of their business, the same could be said of virtually any choice the Tabaris made about how to convey their message."

  While the opinion focuses on domain names, the Tabaris' websites also, at some point, used copyrighted Lexus photos and displayed the Big L logo. Normally, a photo rip and unauthorized logo display will get a district court judge to rule in favor of the IP owner. Before Lexus sued, the Tabaris cleaned up those issues, so the Ninth Circuit panel focuses solely on the two domain names (because an injunction was the only remedy at issue). This is a logical move by the Ninth Circuit, but most courts will not be so forgiving of sites that borrow the official logo and copyrighted photos.

  With the Tabaris' use of the two domain names in their auto brokerage business the only issue on appeal, this should be an easy call per the nominative use doctrine. However, the words "easy" and "nominative use doctrine" go together like peanut butter and artichokes. Personally, I still have no idea when businesses outside a manufacturer's authorized channel can legally include the manufacturer's trademark in their name. Each case seems to be sui generis.

  To segregate legitimate from illegitimate uses of third party trademarks in domain names, the opinion lays out a surprisingly lucid taxonomy with 3 categories of presumptively illegitimate domain names:

  1) "When a domain name consists only of the trademark followed by .com, or some other suffix like .org or .net, it will typically suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder." This makes sense intuitively, but (A) the court doesn't address the seemingly contradictory Lamparello case, and (B) the opinion's reasoning remains predicated on dicey assumptions about consumer search behavior, such as consumers typing in trademark.com into their web browser address bar—an assumption that has grown dicier with the rise of omniboxes.

  2) "Sites like trademark-USA.com, trademark-of-glendale.com or e-trademark.com will also generally suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder."

  3) "domains like official-trademark-site.com or we-are-trademark.com affirmatively suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder and are not nominative fair use"

  By implication, other domain names generally should be eligible for nominative use. At minimum, buy-a-TRADEMARK.com and buyorleaseTRADEMARK.com should be fair game for resellers and related parties like buying agents. In support of this, the court rejects Lexus' argument that there was something untoward about the Tabaris brokering other auto manufacturers if their customers decided they didn't want a Lexus. For more on this, see my Brand Spillovers article.

  The opinion suggests that the following domain names should qualify for nominative use or otherwise be permissible as well:

  • mercedesforum.com
  • mercedestalk.net
  • starbucksgossip.com
  • frys-electronics-ads.com
  • mercedesboots.com
  • mercedeshomes.com [although I wonder about dilution with these two]
  • comcastsucks.org

  Procedurally, the opinion addresses several key issues about the interaction between the nominative use test and the likelihood of consumer confusion test. The opinion says that an evaluation of consumer confusion is implicitly built into the New Kids on the Block nominative use test. Therefore, "if the nominative use satisfies the three-factor New Kids test, it doesn't infringe" without needing to consider the likelihood of consumer confusion test at all. Thus, "nominative fair use 'replaces' Sleekcraft as the proper test for likely consumer confusion whenever defendant asserts to have referred to the trademarked good itself." Further, once a "defendant seeking to assert nominative fair use as a defense...show[s] that it used the mark to refer to the trademarked good," the trademark owner bears the burden of disproving nominative use. All of these procedural points have been hotly contested in prior cases.

  The court concludes that the district court's injunction against the Tabaris using "Lexus" in domain names was too broad and remands the case to the district court to try again. Although the court doesn't tell the district court exactly what to do, it does indicate: "At the very least, the injunction must be modified to allow some use of the Lexus mark in domain names by the Tabaris."

  This is a rich and multi-faceted opinion written in a confident and emphatic style...perhaps too emphatically, as the opinion swings around like a bull in a china shop, breezily overturning or sidestepping numerous 9th Circuit precedents on both domain names and nominative use. Were this opinion to become the definitive 9th Circuit statement on either domain names or nominative use, this case would be a landmark opinion. However, the 9th Circuit's Internet trademark jurisprudence has awkwardly accreted on a case-by-case basis for more than a decade, and I doubt this opinion will meaningfully affect the next 9th Circuit panel's considerations.

  Even so, this case has to be good news for shopbots. Although the Tabaris were "manual" shopping agents, the case's reasoning should apply equally well to all shopbots comparison search engines and review sites that use third party trademarks as part of their taxonomy. These sites regularly get nastygrams from trademark owners. It will be interesting to see if this case helps turn that tide.

  A final oddity: Judge Kozinski wrote both this opinion and the recent eVisa decision. Although the opinions involve different trademark doctrines applicable to domain names (a nominative use defense instead of dilution), their spirit couldn't be more different. The eVisa case was decidedly pro-plaintiff, while this opinion is very defense-favorable. I wonder if Kozinski bent over backwards to help a pro se litigant (the Tabaris represented themselves), or perhaps Lexus' anti-competitive intent set him off. Otherwise, although the split opinions in theory can be harmonized on numerous bases, they struck me as schizophrenic.

  More comments from Rebecca Tushnet (smart and challenging, as always—especially about the numerous empirical deficiencies in the opinion), Ryan Gile and Tom O'Toole.

  Written by Eric Goldman, Associate Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law

  Follow CircleID on Twitter

  More under: Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Law

  

• 23:21

  Beer Friday – What’s Your Favorite?

   » ‎ Elliot's Blog

  Inspired by the video put together by the team over at Name.com, I wanted to keep it light today and ask you what your favorite beer is.

  I enjoy beer and have a few favorites:

  1. Yuengling Lager
  2. Abita Purple Haze
  3. Kilkenny
  4. Sam Adams Cherry Wheat
  5. Sam Adams Cream Stout

  If you drink beer, what are your favorites? I will be sure to have some in the fridge at the next house party.

  Related posts:

  1. Top 10 List of Top 5 Lists – Nice Idea, Bruce Bruce Marler posted his top ten list of top five...
  2. My Top 10 Favorite Domain Names I was talking with a friend (who isn’t in the...
  3. My Favorite Domain Tools In addition to a variety of domain news sources, there...

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• 22:43

  Hot news: UN discovers broadband

   » ‎ IGP Blog
  Yawn.

  Just as WSIS represented a discovery by the UN that we were in an information society about 30 years after it happened and 10 years after its basic institutional parameters had been set, now the UN has discovered that broadband is important, a decade after everyone else. So it assembles a blue-ribbon commission with no capital and no authority, based on the assumption that collecting the pictures of as many status-quo luminaries from industry and government as possible onto a web site will actually accomplish something. Your tax dollars at work...

• 22:34

  .CO Domain General Availability Opens on July 20

   » ‎ Elliot's Blog

  I’m sure you’ve read about .CO domain names by now, but if you would like to take action but haven’t yet, this should serve as a reminder that the general availability date is Tuesday, July 20, 2010. If you are interested in buying a domain name that will be sought after by many, you should ensure that your order is placed ASAP.

  According to NameJet, where preorders close at 8pm on July 19:

  “General Availability, which means the normal registration period for .CO where no trademarks are required, will open at precisely 11:00 am PDT, July 20, 2010. It’s important to get your names in early before the pre-order queue closes.

  .CO is the new domain extension that offers people and companies more choice in branding their online presence with a truly global, recognizable, and credible domain name. It’s the online space where people can fulfill their dreams and the world’s next great enterprises will have a home.”

  The .CO Registry has already awarded their domain names as part of the Founders Program, and my proposal was approved, so I was awarded a .CO domain name. More on that later on, but for now, if you want to pre-order .CO domain names, the time to do so is now.

  Related posts:

  1. Special Offer: Reserve Your .CO Domain Names for Just $275 There are going to be a whole lot of .CO...
  2. ICANN Meeting in New York on July 13 I just registered to attend the upcoming ICANN gTLD meeting...
  3. Fave.com – An Example of Cybersquatting?? According to an article in Business Week, Fave.com is apparently...

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• 22:18

  DNS Gains Added Security with Root Servers Signed With DNSSEC

   » ‎ DomainNews
  The deployment of DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) and internet security took a major step forward this week when the root zone was digitally signed for the first time. This marked the deployment of the DNSSEC at the top level of the DNS hierarchy and ushers the way forward for further roll-out of DNSSEC in the top level domains and DNS Service Providers.

• 22:06

  A Glimpse Into Name.com

   » ‎ The Official Name.com Blog

  A Glimpse at Name.com from Name.com on Vimeo.

  Here’s a short video we put together that offers a glimpse into life at Name.com as a community focused, innovative company that loves our customers, ping pong, and of course beer. We hope you enjoy. :)

• 21:50

  Skip Hoagland's Online Empire Expands With Launch of Shooting.com and CarClassifieds.com

   » ‎ Domain Name Journal
  Skip Hoagland has always preached that partnerships are the way to get high quality domains developed into popular websites. Hoagland cut deals with experts in hunting and automotive media to transform two more of his domains - Shooting.com and CarClassifieds.com - into online destinations that just launched.

• 20:43

  Sarah Palin’s Lost Video About Domain Bloggers and Conferences

   » ‎ Domain Name Wire

  Domain Name Wire locates a long lost video of Sarah Palin talking about domainers.

  Well folks, the domain industry doesn’t get media attention like this every day. Check out this video of Sarah Palin talking with Larry King about the domain name industry.

  Hear about her love of Bob Parsons, what she thinks about Domain Name News, and more in this exclusive video.

  © DomainNameWire.com 2010.

  Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

  Related posts:

  1. Site Parodies Sarah Palin and GoDaddy: But How Would Bob Vote?
  2. Video.us Sells for $75,000, Sets Record Domain Sales Price
  3. GoDaddy Launches YouTube Competitor at Video.me

• 18:58

  IE Registry Operator Postpones Deletions

   » ‎ I Squatted Your EU

  IEDR, the operator of the .ie ccTLD, has postponed its normal fortnightly purge until next Monday.

  The registry operator normally conducts its deletions and suspensions of domains every second Friday, but has postponed this week's "run" until next Monday.

  
  

  
• 16:51

  .jobs Comment Period Attracts Negative Attention

   » ‎ I Squatted Your EU

  Over the last couple of years several of the gTLD registry operators have requested contractual changes with ICANN.

  In many cases the change was small enough that it fit into what is called the Registry Services Evaluation Process (RSEP), which is the case of "new services" such as Verisign's Registry Lock.

  In other cases, however, the requested change is much bigger and requires that ICANN open it up to public comment.

  Such was the case with the proposed "Phased Allocation Program in .JOBS". which has been open to public comment.

  You can read the proposal here (PDF), but in essence it broadens the usage scenarios and the possible registrants of .jobs domains quite significantly. Under the current regime companies are restricted to registering their company name or a close derivative. Under the proposal all those restrictions are gone out the window. From a registrant perspective that may seem appealing at first, but the way that this is being pitched could lead to only a very narrow number of registrants actually gaining at any level. Ultimately, however, the only entity that stands to gain would be the registry.

  If you have the time take a read over some of the comments - they are quite revealing!

  
  

  

• 15:24

  Almost 3,3 Million .eu domain names registered so far

   » ‎ DomainNews

  Eurid,the official management body for .eu soon will  reach 3,3 million .eu domain name registrations.

• 10:01

  .ORG registry is celebrating its 25th anniversary

   » ‎ DomainNews

  .ORG,the Public Interest Registry ( PIR) is celebrating its 25th anniversary .The first .org domain name ,Mitre.org ,was registered on July 10,1985 by the Mitre Corporation .

• 10:00

  Wop.com hits $25,000 in Sedo's July Premium Auction

   » ‎ DomainNews

  The auction for Wop.com is live on Sedo.Wop.com has received four bids so far,with the high bid of $25,000 .

• 9:58

  Neustar Webmetrics Unveils Visual Application Monitoring

   » ‎ DomainNews

  Neustar, announced that it has released Visual Application Monitoring, a new Webmetrics service within Neustar's Internet Infrastructure Services portfolio. Visual Application Monitoring now provides website operators with even greater control over the monitoring of rich media applications.

• 5:12

  Top Ten New gTLD Gotchas

   » ‎ CircleID

  With the launch of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) expected to occur early next year, many are closely examining the opportunities and risks associated with ICANN's Program.

  Although still in draft format and subject to change, keep these gotchas in mind as you think through your strategy.

  A 70% Refund Sounds Great – If you decide not to move forward with your new gTLD application after its initial posting, you are eligible to receive a 70% refund. But because the application fee is $185,000, pulling an application from the process will still result in a cost of $50,000.

  You'll Need to Move Quickly to Object to Applications that Pass the Initial Evaluation – Objections to new gTLD applications can be made as soon as they are posted to the ICANN site for a period of approximately five months. However, you will only have two weeks to file objections once the Initial Evaluation results are made available.

  Obtaining a New gTLD Could Take 19 Months – If you fail the Initial Evaluation, if your application is disputed, and if there is string contention, even the Guidebook says it could take up to 19 months before your new gTLD is delegated.

  Trademark Clearinghouse Only Simplifies Trademark Sunrises – In the past, Registries have relied upon Trademark Sunrises to help recoup their internal start-up costs. With the Trademark Clearinghouse, Registries will no longer be able to charge exorbitant Trademark validation fees. This does not mean, however that other Sunrise periods won't also be instated. Be prepared for the submission of business registration requirements, local presence requirements, and proof of industry trade association membership, along with additional fees for validation.

  The Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) May Be More Work than It's Worth – When the Implementation Recommendation Team originally devised the URS, it was supposed to be a quick, easy and inexpensive method for dealing with clearly infringing domains. As it stands now though, it isn't any of those things. Domains that are successfully suspended as a result of the URS procedure are only suspended for the remainder of their registration term, or for an additional year at current market registration rates. After suspension ends, domains become available for registration and are likely to be registered again resulting in a never-ending cycle of watching and suspending.

  Registry Services Should Not Be Taken Lightly – Registries are responsible for running their TLDs in a stable and secure manner, complying with ICANN's consensus and temporary policies, implementing start-up and post-launch rights protection mechanisms, providing protection for country and territory names, depositing data into escrow, delivering monthly reports to ICANN, hosting a Whois services, maintaining relationships with ICANN-accredited Registrars, maintaining an abuse point of contact, cooperating with contractual compliance audits, making TLD zone files available, and enabling DNSSEC.

  Your Relationship with ICANN Could Be More Solid Than Many Marriages – That's right—when you apply for a new gTLD, be prepared for a 10-year commitment.

  You'll Need to Prepare for the Worst – To obtain a new gTLD, not only will you need to define its mission and purpose, develop financial plans, and describe technical and operational capabilities, but you will also be required to maintain a continued operations instrument sufficient to fund basic operations for a period of three years which would continue in place for five years after the delegation of the registry AND you must also have a continuity plan in place which includes the designation of a transition provider.

  New Registrations Won't Likely Be Available Until Late 2011 / Early 2012 – Even if applications are accepted early next year, even in the best case scenario, it will still be some time before we actually see new gTLDs in the root.

  The ICANN Board Still Needs to Approve All Applications – Even after the numerous reviews by the String Similarity Panel, the DNS Stability Panel, the Geographical Names Panel, the Technical Evaluation Panel, the Financial Evaluation Panel and the Registry Service Technical Evaluation Panel, at the end of the day—entry into any Registry agreement by ICANN must first be approved by the ICANN Board of Directors.

  Written by Elisa Cooper, Director of Product Marketing at MarkMonitor

  Follow CircleID on Twitter

  More under: Domain Names, Domain Registries, ICANN, Policy & Regulation, Top-Level Domains

  

• 3:55

  Salon.com Grabs TuckerCarlson.net After Carlson Let it Expire

   » ‎ Elliot's Blog

  The news circling the political pundit websites today is that The Daily Caller, a website founded by Tucker Carlson, purchased KeithOlbermann.com. On the new website, there’s a bold headline, “WE OWN YOU The Daily Caller acquires KeithOlbermann.com.”

  Later, it was Andrew Allemann who pointed out that Tucker Carlson had to go the UDRP route to get his domain name, TuckerCarlson.com.  Carlson filed a UDRP and was awarded his domain name in June of 2008.

  Now Salon.com has gotten in on the action. In reporting today’s news bits and mentioning Andrew’s article, the website poked fun at Carlson for being cheap and not spending a “couple bucks to nail down TuckerCarlson.net.” Salon.com wrote that it purchased TuckerCarlson.net at Godaddy, although they are using a privacy protection service.

  The irony of the whole thing is that the current registrant of TuckerCarlson.com (presumably a company associated with Carlson because he won the UDRP for it) was the previous registrant of TuckerCarlson.net, and they let TuckerCarlson.net expire in November of 2009. The fun continues.

  Related posts:

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• 3:47

  .ORG Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary - Do You Know What the 1st .ORG Domain Registered Was?

   » ‎ Domain Name Journal
  The venerable .ORG registry is celebrating its 25th anniversary this week. It was on July 10, 1985 that the first .ORG domain name was registered. Since PIR took over operation of the registry in 2003 it has grown by 300% to over 8.5 million active domain names.

• 2:33

  How Great Domain Names Drop

   » ‎ Elliot's Blog

  I was looking at upcoming dropping domain names on FreshDrop.net a couple of days ago, and I saw that the nice 3 letter domain name JIS.com was pending deletion at Network Solutions. According to the last Whois record before the deletion in June, the domain name was owned by a company named Jacksonville Internet Services, Inc., and it was registered to a person named Karl Renaut.

  In July of 1997, Jacksonville Internet Services merged with a company called Southeast Network Services Inc, whose President was Karl Renaut. After further mergers and acquisitions, I believe the company started doing business as Florida Digital Network, using FDN.com as a domain name. In June of 2007, Florida Digital Network, Inc. merged with NuVox, Inc, where Renaut currently serves as VP Technology Development, according to his LinkedIn profile.

  In June of 2008, JIS.com was renewed for two years, and it had an expiration date of June of 2010. The domain name was registered to Renaut, whose email address used the floridadigital.net domain name. Unfortunately for the company, it appears that FloridaDigital.net expired in May of this year.

  Whether Nuvox/Windstream wants JIS.com is anyone’s guess since they haven’t used it, but it’s interesting to follow the anatomy of a domain drop. It will be also interesting to see if someone picks up FloridaDigital.net at auction or via drop catch prior to the auction of JIS.com and tries to redeem JIS.com after re-creating the registrant’s email address. I have no idea if that would even be possible this late (or legal), but I am sure it’s something to keep an eye on in the next few weeks.

  This should also serve as a good reminder for people to keep their Whois information updated and accurate, especially for companies that use email addresses on their own domain names.

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• 2:32

  Top Ten New gTLD Gotchas

   » ‎ Brand Protection Blog

  With the launch of new gTLDs expected to occur early next year, many are closely examining the opportunities and risks associated with ICANN’s Program.

  Although still in draft format and subject to change, keep these gotchas in mind as you think through your strategy. 

  A 70% Refund Sounds Great – If you decide not to move forward with your new gTLD application after its initial posting, you are eligible to receive a 70% refund. But because the application fee is $185,000, pulling an application from the process will still result in a cost of $50,000. 

  You’ll Need to Move Quickly to Object to Applications that Pass the Initial Evaluation - Objections to new gTLD applications can be made as soon as they are posted to the ICANN site for a period of approximately five months. However, you will only have two weeks to file objections once the Initial Evaluation results are made available. 

  Obtaining a New gTLD Could Take 19 Months – If you fail the Initial Evaluation, if your application is disputed, and if there is string contention, even the Guidebook says it could take up to 19 months before your new gTLD is delegated. 

  Trademark Clearinghouse Only Simplifies Trademark Sunrises – In the past, Registries have relied upon Trademark Sunrises to help recoup their internal start-up costs. With the Trademark Clearinghouse, Registries will no longer be able to charge exorbitant Trademark validation fees. This does not mean, however. that other Sunrise periods won’t also be instated. Be prepared for the submission of business registration requirements, local presence requirements, and proof of industry trade association membership, along with additional fees for validation. 

  The Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) May Be More Work than It’s Worth – When the Implementation Recommendation Team originally devised the URS, it was supposed to be a quick, easy and inexpensive method for dealing with clearly infringing domains. As it stands now though, it isn’t any of those things. Domains that are successfully suspended as a result of the URS procedure are only suspended for the remainder of their registration term, or for an additional year at current market registration rates. After suspension ends, domains become available for registration and are likely to be registered again resulting in a never-ending cycle of watching and suspending. 

  Registry Services Should Not Be Taken Lightly – Registries are responsible for running their TLDs in a stable and secure manner, complying with ICANN’s consensus and temporary policies, implementing start-up and post-launch rights protection mechanisms, providing protection for country and territory names, depositing data into escrow, delivering monthly reports to ICANN, hosting a Whois services, maintaining relationships with ICANN-accredited Registrars, maintaining an abuse point of contact, cooperating with contractual compliance audits, making TLD zone files available, and enabling DNSSEC. 

  Your Relationship with ICANN Could Be More Solid Than Many Marriages – That’s right – when you apply for a new gTLD, be prepared for a 10-year commitment. 

  You’ll Need to Prepare for the Worst – To obtain a new gTLD, not only will you need to define its mission and purpose, develop financial plans, and describe technical and operational capabilities, but you will also be required to maintain a continued operations instrument sufficient to fund basic operations for a period of three years which would continue in place for five years after the delegation of the registry AND you must also have a continuity plan in place which includes the designation of a transition provider. 

  New Registrations Won’t Likely Be Available Until Late 2011 / Early 2012 – Even if applications are accepted early next year, even in the best case scenario, it will still be some time before we actually see new gTLDs in the root. 

  The ICANN Board Still Needs to Approve All Applications – Even after the numerous reviews by the String Similarity Panel, the DNS Stability Panel, the Geographical Names Panel, the Technical Evaluation Panel, the Financial Evaluation Panel and the Registry Service Technical Evaluation Panel, at the end of the day – entry into any Registry agreement by ICANN must first be approved by the ICANN Board of Directors.