ICANN 47 in Durban: More gTLD Applicants Sign On With ICANN

ICANN’s Durban Meeting Kicks Off with Signing of New Registrar and Registry Agreements

If you read our update on T+B earlier today, then you already know that dotShabaka Registry was the first to announce its signing of the new gTLD registry contract. During Monday’s Welcome Ceremony, three more new gTLD contracts were signed by applicants: 游戏 (which translates from Chinese to .games) had prioritization number 40, and was applied for by Donuts, Inc., the company that submitted the largest number of gTLD applications; .сайт (prioritization number 9) and .онлайн (prioritization number 6), which translate from Cyrillic to .site and .online, both applied for by CORE Association.

ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadi invited members of the gTLD applicant companies to the stage where a ceremonial contract signing took place. It would not be surprising to see the number of gTLDs with signed contracts increase again before the end of ICANN 47 on Thursday.

After the signing ceremony, Chehadi rolled up his sleeves (literally) and gave a review of the work ICANN has completed since the last meeting was held in Beijing. Among the accomplishments is ICANN’s fulfillment of its promise to get closer to its stakeholders by opening new hubs and engagement centers across the globe. The new ICANN hub in Istanbul is nearly operational and Geneva was announced as the next city where ICANN plans to open a stakeholder engagement center (Beijing was announced as the first center during the April meeting).

Chehade also announced that ICANN would be creating new panels to assist with providing input to the ICANN community on five key issues:

1) Public Responsibility Framework
2) Identifier Technology Innovation
3) ICANN Multi-Stakeholder Innovation
4) ICANN’s Role in the Internet Orgz Ecosystem
5) ICANN in the Future of Internet Governance

He went on to defend the ICANN multi-stakeholder model, saying, “What we’ve got here is unique and no one has anything close to this, no matter what they say. We should defend it not from the point of a bunker mentality, we should defend it by putting it on top of the hill and saying no one has achieved the multi-stakeholder level and transparency and engagement and inclusiveness.” Adapted from  trademarksandbrands.com

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