Currently the Internet administration ICANN is planning to verify if they can get an overview of the number of applicants for new top-level domains by making use of a first formal process.

This Expression of Interest process (short: EoI) was discussed further on December 9, 2009 within the framework of a telephone conference by the ICANN board. In the following you may find the results as well as the further approaches summed up in brief.

Results are thin on the ground, but the next steps towards a final solution might lead to the beginning of a communication period in March 2010 and the opening of the new time slot for EoI requests in June 2010. An exact start date defining when applicants may hand in their requests for a new TLD, has not yet been agreed on.

The number of potential applicants for a TLD has extended by another German state:

The newly founded society dotSaarland e.V would like to promote the Internet ending .saarland by providing information, events and consulting services.

The society mainly addresses citizens from Saarland and representatives from politics, economy and society. Membership is open to organisations and individuals from the whole world.

One of the founder members of the society is the state Saarland itself, represented by the ministry of economics.

The start of the registration is scheduled for the end of 2010.

The initiative dotGay LLC based in San Francisco has to face some competition:

Dot Gay Alliance, a group of homosexuals and gay-friendly businessmen, has also announced an application for the top-level domain .gay. This gets support from quite a few celebrities: Daniel O’Donnell, a politician from New York and the brother of the talk show host Rosie O’Donnell (The Rosie O’Donnell Show), wrote a letter to ICANN telling he would like to commit himself to .gay. Social aspects are important as well: At least 51 per cent of the proceeds from .gay will be used to help gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people in need.

The Internet administration ICANN is planning to examine if it is possible to get an overview of the number of applicants for new top-level domains using a formal procedure. This was agreed upon by the managers of ICANN at the end of the ICANN meeting in Seoul last week. The potential applicants will be asked to declare their interest in the different new domain endings before the application period starts.

This procedure aims at a better overview of the desired TLDs and at a better way to clarify questions concerning trademark politics and possible problems in the Root Scaling Zone.

Numerous representatives from Germany, some of them from the Internet Society eco, reacted by criticising this. In Seoul they appealed to ICANN not to delay the start of the new TLDs any longer.

Furthermore, ICANN now excludes new TLDs with combinations of three letters which appear on the ISO 3166 alpha-3-list of three-letter country codes. This is obviously a response to the doubts of the governments.

The formal obligation by the Department of Commerce in 2010, which was discussed in Seoul as well, is right on top of the governments’ task list. The formal obligation replaces the contractual arrangements made between ICANN and the US authorities, with the exception of the root zone which is still under supervision of the United States. In the future, ICANN is to give account of their work to the whole Internet community. It still needs to be cleared in the following months how exactly this supervision of the organisation in cooperation with the representatives of the interest groups (contractual partners of ICANN, non-governmental organisations and governments) is to be organised in detail.

On October 04, 2009 ICANN published a new version of the Draft Applicant Guidebooks (DAG). In this guide, the guidelines and requirements of an application for a new TLD are defined in detail.

In the past three months topics such as technical procedures, the protection of intellectual property and the potential for fraudulent conduct have been discussed in the framework of meetings in New York, Sydney, London, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.

The DAG was reworked in some points based on results of these discussions and numerous public commentaries. Alongside a special trademark protection the new guidebook contains i.a. the following elements:

In order to protect trademark owners, the suggestion of the IRT team (subject of a previous newsletter) regarding the “Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution” process has been taken into account. This process is supposed to establish a board of arbitration operated by WIPO, where trademark owners may appeal at a reasonable price to authorized registries against potential trademark infringement in the field of top or second level. This bears a risk for the operators of registries which must not be underestimated, as the requirements for such an appeal are quite low.

The complete new Applicant Guidebook can be found at www.icann.org.

Just like all previous versions, this new one is open for public comment. The current Guidebook will also be discussed further at the ICANN meeting in Seoul which will take place from October 25 until 30.

In the meantime, 71 companies, organisations and individual persons have signed a letter to ICANN. The letter explains why it is important that the new top-level domains are introduced without delay.

Some of the reasons for a fast introduction are:

Various registrars, registries, other companies from this branch, venture capitalists, academics, members of the ICANN security and stability committee, applicants for new top-level domains as well as entrepreneurs from altogether 16 countries signed the letter so far. EPAG is also one of the signatories.

New York City officially announced that they would like to apply for their own top-level domain. Thus, New York is the first US American city which is striving for an own TLD and takes its place next to the European cities Barcelona, Berlin, London, Paris and Rome.

It is not yet clear who will be the technical provider of registry services for New York City. The partnership dotNYC LLC, which is working together with Minds and Machines on a technical level, handed in an application.

The registration under the TLD .nyc will be possible for all citizens, shops, groups, authorities and tourist attractions from New York. For example, possible domain names would be theater.nyc, pizza.nyc, blockparty.nyc, statueofliberty.nyc, yourname.nyc or yourbusinessname.nyc.

The .sport Policy Advisory Council, which applies for the TLD .sport via the Initiative Dotsport LLC, submitted an application at ICANN with the aim that the introduction of subcategories for several kinds of sports is to be stopped. Thus, TLDs such as .ski or .basketball would not be available.

Given the fact that there is still no certainty about how ICANN will decide and that, for example, an application has been made for .basketball by the NBA player Shaquille O’Neal, it is surprising that Dotsport LLC is already trying to build walls around their territory although the Initiative has not yet received a supplement for the TLD .sport.

However, the Dotsports Consortium from Luxembourg, competitor in the battle for .sport, is open towards subcategories.

Every holder of a trademark can raise an opposition against the application of a TLD. In doing so, it is not relevant whether he is applying for a TLD himself.

Szeklerland, also known as Transylvania will apply for an own .sic TLD. The Szekler people are a Hungarian-speaking ethnic group which is situated in an area in the east of Transylvania.

.sic derives from Sicultas. On the one hand, this is a translation of the name for the citizens of Szeklerland, on the other hand, this is also a medieval term for a society in self-administration with civil rights. Thus, the TLD is also a step towards autonomy.

Legal aspects of an opposition within the framework of the trademark law during the application for a new TLD are fairly complicated. Therefore, we summed them up for you in the following. The details can be found in section 3.1 of the   Applicant Guidebook:

Every holder of a trademark can raise an opposition against the application of a TLD. In doing so, it is not relevant whether he is applying for a TLD himself.

The WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center is the responsible authority for the execution of any opposition within the framework of the trademark law.

The nTLD applicant has got three possible causes of action in case of an objection:

a) Return of the opposition within 30 calendar days

b) Withdrawing his application

c) Negotiation of a settlement which causes the abatement of the opposition.

The complainant has to bear the costs for the opposition which are USD 1.000-5.000 per case. If the nTLD applicant returns the opposition, he has to pay the same amount. In this case, both parties share the costs.

The opposition fee cannot be refunded which means that if the opposition does not meet the formal expectations, it may need to be handed in and paid for once more. The fee has to be paid in advance.

At this point we would like to provide you with an overview regarding the applications in process for the new top-level domains:

At the moment more and more initiatives are established which announce their commitment towards an own TLD. Amongst other things they use their own websites in order to get public support for their application. A few examples are .nyc, .gay and .eco.

Along this, you may get an impression of the most recent applications for TLDs at www.supportnewtlds.com and you may support us actively.

The stronger the public interest for the introduction of the the new TLDs is, the faster the running processes can be handled. There is no definite start date yet regarding the acceptance of the first applications by ICANN, but it is still scheduled for the first quarter of 2010.

At www.dailyfinance.com a recent article on the commitment by EPAG’s US American partner Minds + Machines may be found.

Furthermore there are interesting interviews with the managing directors of Minds + Machines at www.mindsandmachines.com.

The events by ICANN in New York, London, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi have been a great success and now ICANN plans further events in Latin America.

On August 11 a telephone conference for potential “Independent Evaluators” was convened. The questions and topics which were answered and discussed are also partly interesting for people applying for the new TLDs. You may find a summary at www.icann.org. Moreover, the most important points may be accessed next week at www.epag.net/ntld-news.

ICANN expects a great number of requests for new top-level domains. In order to be able to check the requests in time and within the given time frame, we need a team with an adequate number of verifiers.

Until 15 September 2009, ICANN will give interested parties the chance to apply for the job as an independent verifier for the introduction phase of the new TLDs.

Nine independent and highly qualified candidates applied in the first half of the year 2009. In the fourth quarter of 2009, ICANN will select verifiers from these canidates and those who are still to come for the following examination boards:

You may find more details about the application requirements at: www.icann.org.

Minds + Machines Italy supplements the network of EPAG with regard to the new TLDs. Alongside .roma the Italian partner will also help to initiate a good start for the other new TLDs in Italy.

Providers such as YourSiteCan.Be currently offer a dubious service: These providers accept pre-registrations, before ICANN has even decided which TLDs are to come onto the market.

EPAG suggests to avoid such fee required pre-registrations. As long as it is not confirmed which TLDs come onto the market and at which point in time, their conditions for the allocation of the TLDs are uncertain and therefore it is doubted that an interested party would be able to register the requested TLD.

EPAG‘s American partner Minds + Machines are seriously behind their application for .eco. Within the framework of a new initiative for the improvement of their own ecological assessment, Minds + Machines have set themselves the target to avoid or neutralize any pollution whatsoever by taking environmental action.

Thus, when ordering new servers, M + M will make sure that energy efficient devices are used or that as many business trips as possible are replaced by telephone and online conferences. Greenhouse gases which result from business trips or commuting to work will be compensated for by respective CO2 certificates.

Some revised parts of the second version of the applicant guidebook are already published. Besides ICANN has decided that the third draft of the applicant guidebook will be published on time before the ICANN meeting in Seoul (October 25-30, 2009) so that the final version can be defined at the meeting.

From July 1, 2009 onwards Rod Beckstrom is the new CEO of ICANN. Paul Twomey, the present CEO, will be available until the end of 2009 as senior president as ICANN wants to arrange a smooth transition.

EPAG informs also at twitter about new TLDs. Join the EPAG followers at www.twitter.com/epagnews.

The purpose of the tests is to verify the applicant has met its commitment to establish registry operations in accordance with ICANN and is able to garantize stable and secure operations.

There are three kinds of tests:

The new memo has been incorporated to the following currently open public comment forum www.icann.org. The deadline for public comments is July 20.

The final report of the IRT may be commented until July 6.

After July 6 ICANN is going to go through the results of the IRT report and the public comments. At the end of August ICANN wants to present a strategy for the upcoming action.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has provided a working draft of their comprehensive ongoing study on the topic of potential malicious abuse of the DNS and new gTLD expansion. It is about different security risks.

The biggest meeting is the ICANN meeting that is currently taking place in Sydney (June 21-26). There are several sessions about new TLDs.

Beyond that there will be more information events worldwide. The main topics will be trademark protection, malicious behaviour, security & stability and scale & demand.

Upcoming live consultation sessions will be held in New York (July 13), London (July 15), Hong Kong (July 24) and Abu Dhabi (tbd). On top of these there will be meetings in other places and top-specific webinars.

All events are free of charge, but as a high demand for places is expected, online pre-registration is recommended: www.registration123.com.