New TLDs

Rightside Rejects Donuts’ Unsolicited $70 Million Proposal, Says Undervalues Business

In an announcement released this morning, Rigtside said its Board of Directors has rejected the unsolicited proposal from Donuts Inc. to acquire Rightside's entire registry of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) and related assets for $70 million in an all-cash deal.

ICANN to Extend Verisign .COM Registry Contract for Another Six Years

"Verisign to get .com for six more years, but prices to stay frozen," Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite: "ICANN and Verisign have agreed to extend their .com registry contract for another six years, but there are no big changes in store for .com owners."

Sweden Makes its TLD Zone File Publicly Available

Patrik Wallström writes to report that as of today, IIS (The Internet Foundation In Sweden) has made the zone files for .se and .nu domain names publicly available for the first time. "The underlying reason for making the zone files for .se and .nu available is our endeavour at IIS to promote transparency and openness. IIS has made the assessment that the zone files do not contain any confidential information and, therefore, there is no reason not to make this information available."

WordPress Announces New .BLOG TLD, to be Available This Year

Automattic, the parent company of the popular blogging platform WordPress, today announced plans to make the new .blog TLD available for registration this year. Earlier this year, the company secured the rights to oversee and operate the registration of the highly contested new generic TLD.

Hong Kong Billionaire Richard Li Becomes First Person to Own a TLD Matching His Name

The new top-level domain (TLD) .richardli secured for the Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li went live on the internet today. Kevin Murphy reporting in Domain Incite: "The registry is Pacific Century Asset Management (HK) Limited, a subsidiary of PCCW, the Hong Kong telecomms and internet giant of which Li is chair... The gTLD is a pure brand-protection play, according to the 2012 application"

Series of New African TLDs Fail to Go Live, Get Termination Notice from ICANN

Nine of the 17 African new Top-level Domain (TLD) applicants have received termination notices this week as a result of missing their deadlines to go live.

Next Round of New TLDs May Not Happen Until 2020, Says ICANN

Speaking at this week's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), taking place in Geneva, head of ICANN's global domains division, Akram Atallah, has pointed to 2020 as the earliest realistic timeframe for the next round of new gTLD applications.

WIPO Reports Rise in Cybersquatting Cases, Triggered by New gTLDs

According to the latest report from The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), trademark owners filed 2,754 cases under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) with the agency in 2015 - an increase of 4.6 % over the previous year.

PIR Invites Bids for .Org Back-End Operations

In a post today, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the not-for-profit operator of the .org, .ngo and .ong domains, has announced a Request for Information for the management of its back-end registry services. Afilias which has been the technical provider for PIR since it was established by ISOC following the successful ISOC/Afilias strategic partnership in the bid for .ORG in 2002, says it has been expecting an RFP since the last contract was signed and that it remains committed to its continued work with the organization.

TLD Operators Should Not Police Content, Says EFF

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a letter today stating "companies and organizations that run the Internet's domain name system shouldn't be in the business of policing the contents of websites, or enforcing laws that can impinge on free speech.

ICANN Denies .GAY’s Request for Reconsideration

ICANN's Board Governance Committee (BGC) today released its comments on recent reconsideration request of dotgay LLC's new top-level domain .GAY application. Kevin Murphy from Domain Incite reports: "ICANN has refused dotgay LLC's latest appeal against adverse .gay decisions, and has taken the unusual step of preemptively defending itself against probably inevitable accusations from gay right groups."

New gTLD ‘.shop’ Sells for 41.5 Million at Auction, Highest Sale to Date

GMO Registry, Inc, a Japanese domain name registry business, has won the rights to a single new top-level domain, .shop, for $41.5 million.

Close to 3.1 Million Domain Names Registered in the Third Quarter of 2015

Approximately 3.1 million domain names were registered in the third quarter of 2015, bringing the total number of registered domain names close to 299 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLDs) as of Sept. 30, 2015, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief by Verisign.

Over 5000 .BANK Domain Names Registered by U.S. Banks

fTLD Registry Services, the operator of .BANK top-level domain, reports that nearly seven months after .BANK launched, U.S. banks are continuing to register domain names.

Radioihead Backs Community-Based Application for the New gTLD ‘.Music’

Ed O'Brien, guitarist from the band Radiohead, is the latest musician expressing support for DotMusic's community-based application for the new gTLD .music.