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Yesterday, the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held hearings on ICANN's expansion of top level domains. Next week the House Energy and Commerce committee will also conduct their hearings on this same topic. more
Previously, this series tackled the terribly awful Amendment 35 to the NTIA-Verisign cooperative agreement and also made the case that the tainted presumptive renewal currently included in registry agreements is inherently anti-competitive. But renewing legitimacy and integrity of Internet governance requires accurately understanding the unique and significant role retained by the U.S. government following the IANA transition. more
It looks as if new top-level domains are getting ever closer to the opening bell. Preliminary minutes from the December 9 2009 ICANN Board of Directors meeting suggest that the Board may authorize Expressions of Interest (EOI) at their February 10th meeting. The vote was unanimous. more
As counterfeit networks grow more elusive, AI-driven clustering could revolutionize brand protection. By linking disparate findings, identifying serial infringers, and enabling bulk enforcement, AI offers a smarter approach to monitoring and takedown efforts. Yet, challenges remain - from data reliability to analyzing complex content. Companies that master AI-driven clustering may gain a significant advantage in the fight against brand abuse. more
The domain name system is not the place to police speech. ICANN is legally bound not to act as the Internet's speech police, but its legal commitments are riddled with exceptions, and aspiring censors have already used those exceptions in harmful ways. This was one factor that made the failed takeover of the .ORG registry such a dangerous situation. But now, ICANN has an opportunity to curb this abuse and recommit to its narrow mission of keeping the DNS running... more
There are now more than 1,000 top-level domains (TLDs), but which is best for branding yourself or your business? With search engines, does it even make a difference? What does it matter which TLD you chose as long as you rank high enough on Google? That is what many would have you believe, but there is one power greater than any search engine... At one time, my brother and I owned Rate.com. more
The Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS) is often described as a domain name dispute policy that applies to the new gTLDs. While that's true, the URS is actually broader than that. The URS (a quick and inexpensive policy that allows a trademark owner to obtain the temporary suspension of a domain name) applies to more than just the new gTLDs, that is, those top-level domains that are a part of ICANN's 2012 domain name expansion. more
The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is an online dispute resolution regime. While panelists technically have discretion under Rule 13 to hold in-person hearings if they "determine[ ] ... and as an exceptional matter, that such a hearing is necessary for deciding the complaint" no in-person hearing has ever been held. Rule 13 exists to be ignored. more
The UDRP lists three nonexclusive circumstances for rebutting lack of rights or legitimate interests in domain names, which if successful also concludes the issue of abusive registration in respondent's favor. The third circumstance is "you are making a legitimate noncommercial or fair use of the domain name without intent for commercial gain to misleadingly divert consumers or to tarnish the trademark or service mark at issue." more
The U.S. is a total hotbed for Startups. Over the course of the last year, venture capital firms invested $69.11 billion in U.S. startups. Now is an exciting time where there is more ingenuity and entrepreneurial efforts than ever before. And of course every entrepreneur's dream is to have a successful idea and "make it". However, a startup's name and its associated digital identity are often not as thought out as they should be. more
Ukraine's representative to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has sent a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to remove Russian-administered top level domains (.RU, .SU and .рф) from the DNS root zone. In a separate letter, Ukraine's representative also asked RIPE NCC to withdraw the right to use all IPv4 and IPv6 addresses by all Russian members of the regional IP registry for the European region. more
As artificial intelligence reshapes how users navigate the web, domain names may undergo explosive growth, potentially reaching tens of billions. A new infrastructure of trusted digital identities could become essential for AI agents. more
The most incredible thing about the dot-org sale is no longer the billion-dollar price tag. It's not surprise fait-accompli announcement. It's not the republican billionaires. It's that the proponents have continued to advocate for it in the midst of the worst crisis the world has faced since the second world war. The biggest crisis in almost a hundred years. One that will reverberate for generations. more
From the humble beginnings of ARPANET to the birth of the internet as we know it today, domain registrars have been the silent architects of our online activity. Now, as we stand on the cusp of the Web3 revolution, domains are set to undergo yet another profound transformation. Internet innovations have given us a remarkable ability to connect, but now we are bouncing against the limits of this paradigm. more
The UnregisteredGems.com series of articles explores a range of techniques to filter and search through the universe of unregistered domain names, in order to find examples which may be compelling candidates for entities looking to select a new brand name (and its associated domain). The previous instalment of the series looked at the categorisation of candidate names according to the phonetic characteristics of its constituent consonants, using a simple one-to-one mapping between each consonant and a corresponding phonetic group. more