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I participated in the French RINDD last week in Paris: RINDD stands for "Rencontres Internationales des Noms de Domaine". The translation would be "The International Domain Name Conference". This event is organized once a year by SafeBrands, a French Registrar. Many participants were there: the ICANN, Law Firms, Donuts, other new gTLD applicants, back-end Registries and many experts. more
After its initial launch in 2016 and with over 1,800 domains registered, the .tube TLD recently released over 25,000 previously reserved domains as part of a broader re-launch of its business and brand. I spoke with Rami Schwartz, Founder and CEO of .tube about the journey so far and about what's in store for .tube in the New Year... "We're used to fighting against companies much larger than us and prevailing - our history has seen us come up against the likes of the Mexican Government and Google..." more
With the backlash against tech companies gaining steam, we've seen certain contrarian members of the media taking indiscriminate aim at companies and issues without due cause. This is what happened when Financial Times columnist Gillian Tett, in a paywalled March 7th editorial, inaccurately portrayed a process involving the Amazon's gTLD application for .AMAZON, an issue the i2Coalition has been engaged in for years. more
This post outlines the valuation pitfalls that need to be avoided when competing for the acquisition of a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD). The most widely used financial tools to determine the economic viability of a capital investment project, such as bidding for a new gTLD, are the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and the Net Present Value (NPV), which measures the expected additional value a project would create if undertaken. more
New York City is in the midst of a two part Landrush for its .nyc domain names. First is a 60 day application period (August 4 – October 3) during which anyone with nexus -- basically city residents -- can purchase an available .nyc domain name... It doesn't even matter if a name has a NYS Trademark or d/b/a registration, those names too are fair game... There are significant problems with this process. more
If you're considering rebranding under a new gTLD, go with a comprehensive big bang. A recent study by professors Dale Miller, Bill Merrilees, and Raisa Yakimova ("Corporate Rebranding: An Integrative Review of Major Enablers and Barriers to the Rebranding Process") finds that success comes when senior management makes an unweaving commitment based on proactive analyses of the entire value-chain, with buy-in and input from employees and suppliers. more
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite.com: "Almost half of trademark-conscious companies are considering a '.brand' top-level domain, according to a survey carried out by World Trademark Review magazine. The survey also found that there is much more interest in new TLDs among marketing folk than lawyers, which is perhaps not surprising. So far, only a few potential .brand applicants have been revealed..." more
Why in the world would any company sign-up for a "New gTLD Application Monitoring Service" when ICANN intends to publicly post all applications on May 1st? Domain Name Watching and Trademark Watching Services make perfect sense when new registrations and applications are being submitted and granted on a daily basis. I think that we can all easily agree that trying to understand new domain name and trademark registrations without an automated service would be nearly impossible. more
Back in February 2017, I published the article "Next gTLD Round -- A Seven Year Itch" on CircleID advocating for the Board, ICANN Community, and ICANN org to reach a common understanding of what needed to be accomplished in order to identify a date to open the next application window for new gTLDs. In the past 18 months, there has been considerable movement toward the goal of opening the next application window for new gTLDs. more
I receive spam on a daily basis from various Banks... as well as mine. None are legitimate but actually, that is not what is catching my attention receiving spam. There is something else and it deals with stealing information from me. Creating a personalized ".brand" domain name extension allows avoiding all that. Many are familiar with receiving spam through phishing attempts to have you answering an email and providing personal information such as login and passwords... more
2020 has been extremely eventful, so it follows that the domain industry has continued to experience perpetual change, progress and uncertainty in the last three months of the year. In our Q4 New gTLD Quarterly Report, MarkMonitor experts analyze topical registration activity, launch information, .brand growth and DNS abuse, and share a list of upcoming industry meetings for 2021. more
There is a new attempt to refocus on Africa. A recent announcement titled "A New Approach to Africa" was greeted with excitement but deliberations that transpired in a Global mailing list have projected a whole new dimension and caused a certain amount of dissatisfaction in some quarters. Africa had a good opportunity in the current ICANN new gTLD programme to submit applications for at least 17 gTLDs. more
Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unveiled its Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), a tool it proposes will help fight trademark infringement relating to another of its new programs - generic top level domain (gTLD). As Lafeber describes, criticism of ICANN's gTLD program and subsequent TMCH database is mounting. Skeptics have noted that given the significant cost of registering a gTLD - the application fee is $185,000 and subsequent annual fees are $25,000 - the program appears to be solely a cash cow, without adding much value to Internet users. more
According to a new report, the number of domain names increased by 24 million globally in 2008 increasing the total to 177 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domains (TLDs). This represents 16% growth over the previous year, reports the latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign. It is also noted that the last quarter of 2008 saw more than 10.1 million new domain names registered across all TLDs. This reflects a slower growth in new registrations with a decline of 12% from the third quarter 2008 and 17% from the same quarter in the previous year. more
Would you be interested in helping guide the future of the Public Interest Registry (PIR), the non-profit operator of the .ORG, .NGO and .ONG domains? If so, the Internet Society is seeking nominations for three positions on the PIR Board of Directors. The nominations deadline is Monday, February 4, 2019, at 15:00 UTC. There are three positions opening on the PIR Board. Directors will serve a 3-year term that begins mid-year 2019 and expires mid-year 2022. more