Matias Vangsnes

The Trademark Clearinghouse (“TMCH”) is a newly-launched rights protection mechanism for brand owners to protect their trade-marks. The TMCH is part of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) program for handling new generic top-level domain (gTLD) registrations.  The new gTLD program A gTLD is simply a domain name extension – the last few [...]

Private Auction Among Applicants for New Generic Top-Level Domains Will Resolve Contention Between Competing Applications Bellevue, Wash. (PRWEB) May 17, 2013 Donuts Inc., a registry for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs), has committed to participate in the first online applicant auction for 63 of the 307 total gTLDs for which it has applied. The [...]

The Internet Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organization that oversees the use of Internet domains, has recently implemented a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program for the purpose of increasing competition in the domain name space.  Given that this program may also increase incidents of cybersquatting, or the temptation to misappropriate [...]

Although the Trade Mark Clearing House is now open for registration of trade mark holders’ rights (see last update), the proposed 23 April date for the commencement of contracting with the first successfully examined gTLD applicants was not met and this process will now begin in June.  ICANN’s newly announced plan is to start pre-delegation [...]

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has released its responses to questions (PDF) raised at its recent April public hearing forum held in Beijing, China, including an admission that it does not know if generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) will make the internet easier to use or just more confusing. A member [...]

In its 2014 budget ICANN expects a total of 646 new gTLD applications will be withdrawn up from its estimate of 545. We know that there were 1931 applications submitted for 1,409 strings. So we know that all the non-winning applications in strings with more than one application will be withdrawn accounting for 522 of [...]

According to a Press Release just out, Donuts Inc., the largest applicant in the new gTLD’s program has committed to participate in the first online applicant auction for 63 of the 307 total gTLDs for which it has applied. The announcement is made in advance of next week’s commitment date for participation in the auction, [...]

According to ICANN 2014 budget it is expecting revenue coming in from New gTLD’ to be less than 10% of existing TLD”s. The 2014 revised budget has $81,115,000 in revenue coming in from registries and registrars from incumbent TLD’s  but only $7,043,000 in revenue coming in from new gTLD’s. ICANN fiscal year closes on June [...]

According to ICANN 2014 budget it is expecting revenue coming in from New gTLD’ to be less than 10% of existing TLD”s. The 2014 revised budget has $81,115,000 in revenue coming in from registries and registrars from incumbent TLD’s  but only $7,043,000 in revenue coming in from new gTLD’s. ICANN fiscal year closes on June [...]

Spring is in the air in the Northern Hemisphere, and unfortunately almost like clockwork that means the ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is back in the news because of its continuing attempts to rollout as many as 1,400 new Top Level Domain (gTLD) web site suffixes. It seems like no good deed [...]

NetNames, a online brand protection and domain name management specialist, released the results of a poll of 100 business directors in UK enterprises (minimum turnover of £5 million) on domain names and the new gTLD’s. In its research, NetNames found 99% of respondents feel domain names are important to their brand’s internet presence, reflecting the [...]

Radix Registry, the new TLD Company of Directi, has passed the initial evaluation stage on 4 of its TLD applications, .blog, .hotel, .online and .insurance. Directi, a global leader in Internet products and Web services, under its new brand Radix had applied for 31 strings comprising several generic and mass market names. A month back, [...]

This is an edited version of comments submitted to ICANN on the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Beijing Communiqué of 11 April 2013. The GAC Communiqué recommends that ICANN implement a range of regulations (which the GAC calls “safeguards”) for all new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) covering areas ranging from malware to piracy to trademark and [...]

Radix which had applied for 31 new gTLD’s has withdrawn its application for the new gTLD .Movie. Radix application for .Movie had a prioritization number of 592. There are 7 other applicants for the .movie new gTLD including Google, Amazon, Famous Four, Straat Investments which is associated with the .Co registry,  Donuts and Dish Network. [...]

Last week the ICANN announced a suite of new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) which will usher in a new era of domain extensions – I’m still holding out for .rude, but it looks like that will be awhile. The domain extensions that have passed ICANN’s rigorous examination include .PARIS, whose application was submitted by the City [...]

SEC filing sheds (some) light on relationship for new top level domains. A lot of fuss has been made about the connection between Demand Media and Donuts and the new TLD program. What exactly is the relationship between the two companies? Demand Media’s latest 10-Q, filed today, explains the terms of the agreement: As part [...]

38 More new gTLD applications passed ICANN Initial Evaluation Today. Heading the list are the Geo’s of .Paris (which had been earlier passed over on its turn)  .Melbourne and .Durban Other generics passing IE include Amazon’s (AMZN) applications for .Talk and .Silk, Google’s (GOOG) applications for .Cal, and .Cpa Demand Media, Inc. (DMD) application for [...]

It’s safe to say that with just a week to go before ICANN intended to sign the first contract for a new gTLD, the last thing anyone wanted was a 12-page document from the world’s governments with 16 new “safeguards”, six of which it wants to see applied to every new extension. But what the [...]

The process of introducing new generic top level domains is already underway. Generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, are the suffixes at the end of web addresses, such as .com, .org and .net. We could have as many as 1,400 new gTLDs sometime this year. While the gTLDs may be “just code” – a set of internet protocols [...]

Demand Media applies for 26 TLDs outright and has rights to up to 107 applied for by partner Donuts, Inc. Demand Media announced today that it has applied for 26 top level domains on its own, and also can obtain rights to 107 gTLDs being applied for by Donuts, Inc. In May it announced that [...]