Domain Names

EFOW Wants Total Protection for Geographical Indications Domains in .VIN, .WINE and All Other TLDs

This is a letter sent from the European Federation of Origin Wines (EFOW) to the courteous attention of Dr Steve Crocker, Chair of the ICANN Board , Mr Cherine Chalaby, Chair of the new gTLD Program Committee Board, Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN and Mr Akram Atallah, COO of ICANN. This letter, sent by its President Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, was sent today to ICANN and is entitled "ICANN initiatives for the attribution of new generic top-level Internet domains -- PDO and PGI wines' concerns".

Thinking Carefully About New gTLD Objections: Legal Rights (4 of 4)

This last article on the four new gTLD objections will look at the Legal Rights Objection ("LRO"). While other articles in this series have touched on trademark concepts at certain points, issues from that area of the law predominate in LRO. Here we review the pertinent LRO-related trademark concepts, with which many readers likely will have some familiarity from working with domains and the UDRP. Still, the theme of the first three articles applies here: Potential objections are more involved and complicated than they may seem, and require careful thought if they are to be made.

Mishandling the Registrar Contract Negotiations

By publishing a draft Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for public comment before it has been agreed on by both parties, has ICANN dealt the bottom-up multi-stakeholder model a blow? ICANN Staff and the registrars have been negotiating a new version of the RAA for the past 18 months following requests by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) such as Interpol for greater consumer protection. With both ICANN and registrars working hard, by early this year agreement had been reached on 11.5 of the 12 LEA "asks". A deal looked close.

Closed Generics Debate Rages On

The new gTLD program continues to throw up last-minute debates on what is acceptable as a TLDs and what is not. The latest such verbal joust centers around closed generics. These are generic terms being applied for by applicants whom, should they be successful, will not open the TLD up to everyone on an equal access basis. As an example, think .book being run by Amazon and only available to Amazon customers.

Google: Not All ccTLD’s Are Created Equally in Generic Search Rankings

There is a very interesting video posted on YouTube.com from Matt Cutts of Google who answered the question about how ccTLD's are viewed by Google especially when they are being used as domain hacks. Here is the question: "We have a vanity domain (http://ran.ge) that unfortunately isn't one of the generic TLDs, which means we can't set our geographic target in Webmaster Tools. Is there any way to still target our proper location?"

ICANN’s Trademark Clearinghouse to Provide Unprecedented Protections in the Domain Name Space - HUH?

Really ICANN? The Trademark Clearinghouse provides unprecedented protection. According to your recent announcement it does. Do tell, ICANN -- in what way does the Trademark Clearinghouse protect anything?

10.1 Million .ORG Domains and Counting

PIR released the results of the bi-annual domain name report, "The Dashboard," which outlines the growth of .ORG in the second half of 2012. Overall, we had a remarkable year. Most notably, we hit a major milestone in June with the registration of the 10 millionth .ORG domain! Some of the key findings of "The Dashboard" include the following.

5 Reasons Why Closed Generic New gTLDs Should Be Opposed

I'm on the record multiple times over the last few months for my opinions on "closed generics"... Since then I've sent several letters to ICANN (supported by many others) and have been quoted and referenced in several articles on the subject including Politico.com... If you're not a domain "geek" then the danger of this issue might not be that easy to understand, so here are five reasons why "closed generics" are a really bad idea.

Questions on the Debate on ‘Closed Generic’ gTLD Applications

ICANN is currently seeking public comment on the subject of "closed generic" gTLD applications. It asks "whether specific requirements should be adopted corresponding to this type of application". It invites comments on what it defines as an "issue". In particular, ICANN wonders how an applied-for domain can be deemed a "closed generic" TLD, and whether there should be rules governing the way this TLD will be operated.

Thinking Carefully About New gTLD Objections: Community (3 of 4)

My third installment regarding gTLD objections - and understanding exactly what's required for an objector to prevail - moves to the more complex community-based objections. For those getting their first exposure to this unwieldy beast, pull up a chair and get comfortable. The community objection involves multifaceted elements, each having its own set of defining factors and often using similar terminology in different contexts. As such, it can be very confusing and one can easily lose track of the bigger picture.