Fadi Chehadé: Internet Governance Update

In recent days, the community has asked for more information about the background of events in Internet governance including the Montevideo Statement, meetings in Brazil and the Internet Governance Forum and so I wanted to write this blog as another way to complement my ongoing discussions with various community groups. Since I joined ICANN last …

Pre-Reserve a Domain Name, or Not? ICANN Answers the Question

With delegation of new gTLDs successfully underway, the general public will soon be able to register domain names in a variety of new generic Top-Level Domains (e.g., yourname.anything). This opens a new chapter in Internet history: one in which brands and businesses of all sizes will be able to invest in new online real estate. …

Afilias and Amazon ICC new gTLDs community objection Wins .HEALTH and .BOOK

On .health “.health” THE INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR EXPERTISE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CASE No. EXP/409/ICANN/26 PROF. ALAIN PELLET, INDEPENDENT OBJECTOR (FRANCE) vs/ AFILIAS LIMITED (IRELAND) This expert determination arises out of a Limited Public Interest Objection by Professor Alain Pellet, Independent Objector (“Objector”), to the application of Afilias Limited (“Applicant”) for the generic …

Pre-Delegation Testing for Dot Chinese Online (.在线) & Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) Begins

TLD Registry Ltd is thrilled to announce that today the Pre-Delegation Testing (PDT) for Dot Chinese Online (.在线) & Dot Chinese Website (.中文网) will begin. This marks a substantive step towards our go-live plans, which we estimate will take place early next year. PDT, an ICANN requirement for all New gTLDS, is a series of …

9 more new gTLD’s join the IDNs for delegation

ICANN’s New gTLD Program will result in the expansion of available Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), such as .COM, .NET or .ORG, from 22 to possibly 1,400 new names or “strings”. On 23 October 2013, first new gTLDs from ICANN’s New gTLD Program were delegated. This means they were into the Internet’s Root Zone, the authoritative database …

NGPC Accepts GAC Category 1 and 2 Safeguard Advice

ICANN New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) has finally given its safeguard advice response to Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) The result of the NPGC action is that some new gTLD’s in the same vertical will be open to anyone who wants to register a domain name, while others will fall into the highly restricted category and can …

WHOIS Website Beta Launched by ICANN

Following through on community recommendations for improving accountability and transparency, ICANN has launched the first phase of a new “one-stop” online resource about the WHOIS directory service. This new information website provides a clear and easy-to-understand explanation of how to access existing WHOIS information on who has registered domain names. It also makes it easy …