ICANN - itbusinessdirect

Brands set to lose ‘closed generic’ gTLDs

July 5, 2013 Staff Writer

Scores of controversial brand-owned generic top-level domains (gTLDs) could be under threat after a ruling on Thursday that defers their approval until further notice. ICANN has ruled that applications for ‘closed generic’ gTLDs – dictionary words not available for public use – must be discussed further with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). “The NGPC [New gTLD Program Committee] directs staff to defer moving forward with the contracting process for applicants seeking to impose exclusive registry access for ‘generic strings’ to a single person or entity”, a statement says. Adapted worldipreview.com

Global Name Branding Challenges & the New Digital Age

June 18, 2013 Staff Writer

ADOTAS — Naming rules originated from common sense, transformed into common laws, and later created the trademark philosophy to govern “naming” as a prime and civil component of businesses across the globe. This centuries-old thinking is almost like what electricity is to the Internet. Basically without the core component they are just useless. The current ICANN gTLD expansion now requires a worldwide awakening, particularly in the diverse domain-name industry that without well-balanced trademark rules, is basically headed toward disaster. ICANN is faced with major policy decisions whether to accept a…

DotConnectAfrica Trust Responds to ICANN GAC Objection Advice on its .Africa application

May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 Staff Writer

In its response to the ICANN Board, DCA Trust disagreed with the GAC Objection Advice. PRLog (Press Release) – May 16, 2013 – DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust), the contending applicant that submitted an independent bid for the .Africa new generic Top-Level Domain name, recently submitted another fulsome response to the ICANN Board of Directors to defend the GAC Objection Advice that was issued against its .Africa new gTLD application by the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) body within ICANN. It may be recalled that DCA Trust previously submitted a response to…

ICANN on Africa’s Internet Market and Hub Offices: Interview with Brad White, ICANN’s Director of Global Media Affairs

May 20, 2013May 20, 2013 Staff Writer

Africa is increasingly becoming a key player in global business and essential resources like the internet will definitely be forming a critical part of this growth. At the end of 2012, Africa’s internet penetration rate was quoted as heading to 16%. While this is quite low compared to global rates, the continent has witnessed a sharp rise in internet usage in recent years and analysts say the increase is now poised to rise at tremendous rates as thousands of Africans come online by the day. Adapted From bizrika.com

The battle for .Africa is not yet over !: Rejoinder to IT Web South Africa ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’

April 29, 2013 Staff Writer

The Editor-in-Chief ITWeb South Africa Dear Sir, Our attention has been drawn to the news story written by Bonnie Tubbs titled ‘New Local Domains See Breakthrough’ click here for news story) that was published recently on your news web site. DCA Trust believes that in light of recent ICANN Post-Beijing developments regarding the new gTLD program, it is important to correct any wrong impressions that have been unwittingly conveyed by your article and the comments that were purportedly attributed by your journalist to Mr. Neil Dundas of UniForum ZA Central…

Africa Union Tyranny of .africa and the African Community Circus

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013 Staff Writer

The GAC shall provide advice and communicate issues and views to the ICANN Board. The GAC is not a decision making body. Such advice given by the GAC shall be without prejudice to the responsibilities of any public authority with regard to the bodies and activities of ICANN, including the Supporting Organisations and Councils.” GAC Principle 1 Following the article written on Kenya’s position being ignored at GAC, the former Vice chair at GAC Ms. Alice Munyua has reportedly forwarded a 12th April 2012,a letter that was written by Kenya…

Expanding Internet domain names in China

April 12, 2013 Staff Writer

An organization that coordinates Internet protocols is discussing the future of online domain names in Beijing. In addition to the familiar dot-com and dot-org suffixes, billions more new addresses could be hitting the web, including those using Chinese characters. China’s new domain name market is attracting experts and stakeholders from around the world. The non-governmental organization that oversees domain names, the Internet Committee for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is in Beijing to discuss allowing hundreds more suffixes, including those using Chinese characters rather than the western alphabets. With…

U.S. Department of Commerce not supporting USPS objection to .mail top level domains

April 12, 2013 Staff Writer

Last week I wrote about how the United States Postal Service filed objections to all of the top level domain applications for .mail. It’s a big waste of money, as in order to prevail the USPS would have to show it has some sort of legal rights to the term “mail”. ICANN just published a letter from Lawrence Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the U.S. Department of Commerce, saying that it does not support the objections: Adapted from domainnamewire

More Than 250M Domain Names Have Now Been Registered, Almost Half Are .Com And .Net

April 12, 2013April 12, 2013 Staff Writer

The total number of registered domain names passed 250 million in the last quarter of 2012, according to Verisign’s latest Domain Name Industry Brief. More than 6 million domain names were registered in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total to 252 million worldwide. The basic .com domains, of course, make up the majority of registered domain names. By the end of December users had registered 106.2 million .com domains, as well as 14.9 million .net addresses. The .com and .net top-level domains (TLDs) also accounted for the majority…