ICANN's new top-level domain name pre-registration scheme is in dispute

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January 17 News, according to foreign media reports, ICANN (Internet domain name and address management Agency) will launch thousands of top-level domain plans caused widespread controversy, is at a crossroads. Public comments on the plan will be completed by the end of January, which will provide the basis for ICANN's decision on whether to accelerate or postpone the implementation of the plan.

ICANN is currently seeking advice on a program to apply for a pre-registration process for the new top-level domain. These new top-level domain names include. Jazz,. Sport, food, etc. If the program is passed, the top-level domain applicant will need to submit the new top-level domain name of the auction application, and before submitting all the application materials deposit 55,000 dollars, the pre-registration process is completed. The new process will be implemented as early as June 2010.

Afilias Senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Roland Laplante (Roland LaPlante) said: "The pre-registration process is critical to the new top-level domain application because it can greatly shorten the time that an enterprise makes an application decision." The new program does not need to submit all of the application materials, and does not need to develop an internal business plan, only to make or not to decide. "Afilias is an organization that manages. info and. org domain names.

"Few U.S. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are aware of ICANN's new top-level domain registration scheme and the possibility of increasing the speed of applications through a pre-registration program," says Ken Silva, chief technology Officer Ken Chilva, a domain registrar. "The programme has not been deeply rooted," he said. But the plan also raises concerns because it could lead to malicious preemption. ”

At present, the Internet supports up to 280 kinds of top-level domain names, including the most widely used. com, as well as Germany's. de, China's. CN and other domestic domain names. ICANN has been discussing a significant increase in the number of top-level domain names since 2007. In October 2009, however, potential domain bidders proposed a pre-registration scheme for domain names. This scheme is actually an "expression of interest" (Expressions of acquires, "EOI"), which allows ICANN to realistically predict the status of top-level domain applications and to plan a list of applications for a top-level domain name.

"Through the (pre-registration) process, ICANN can learn about the real potential bidders and their true intentions," says La. The question now is how much money the process needs, how much information needs to be provided and whether the information will be publicly disclosed. ”

The request for a new ICANN programme will be closed on January 27. So far, ICANN has received more than 40 feedback, with almost equal support and opposition to the program. Supporters include organizations that plan to bid for new top-level domain names, while opponents include trademark attorneys and some American companies, such as Heinz Food and the company Lockheed Martin, who argue that it is premature to adopt a pre-registration process before the application process is completed.

"Many of the more anxious applicants have expressed interest in expressing this approach in the hope of speeding up the application process," said Steven Metalitz, a member of the Intellectual Property Commission of ICANN and Steven Mantoriz, a Washington lawyer. In fact, it's like Icann says we don't know how to do this, but we'll start it anyway. ”

If the pre-registration process is not approved, the organization that applies for the new top-level domain needs to wait until 2011 until ICANN clarifies well-known trademarks and network security issues. At present, American companies with a large number of top-level domain names are looking for special trademark protection to avoid other fraudulent practices such as Internet registration and phishing. These companies are also trying to avoid the need to spend a lot of money to buy their company and brand names after ICANN passes the new top-level domain registration scheme. ICANN has set January 26 as the deadline for trade marks and other related information.

"The programme has received broad support within the ICANN Intellectual Property Commission, and it does have some safeguards," Mantoriz said. The most important point is that, in addition to (the unified dispute settlement process), it allows the trademark owner to quickly resolve the top-level domain name registered by the network's Uniform through (Unified fast-suspend system, Rapid suspension systems). ”

The new top-level domain scheme is likely to have a huge impact on the domain name registration industry. The industry has maintained a reverse-growth trend in the recession. According to VeriSign, a total of 187 million domain names were registered in September 2009, half of which are in. com and. Net. ICANN says new top-level domain names will provide more innovation, more choices and more competition, especially to provide more services to non-English domain names. The new domain name can include any 3 to 63 characters, and will also support Chinese, Arabic, and other languages.

So far, several groups have announced that they will apply for a new top-level domain. These include the domain name representing the city, such as. Paris, for example, the representative of the region. Africa (Africa), representing the charitable community. Green (), the term for generic. Food (food) and. Wine (red wine). There are also companies that plan to retain their own names, such as. Deloitte (Deloitte).

"How many new top-level domain applications do we have? No one knows the exact answer," says La. We are now only learning from our marketing department about the hundreds of competing bidders. "It is not clear how the Internet DNS will be tuned to support the new top-level domain," La said. To integrate everything together, there are many risks.

ICANN will hold a meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in March this year. ICANN is expected to make a decision on the pre-registration process, trademark protection and other outstanding issues related to the new top-level domain at the meeting.