Applicant for .Realtors asks ICANN to unfreeze .Realtors as a Brand App and Should be Outside Of GAC Advice

In a letter sent to the Chair of the new gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) The National Association Of Realtors  has asked ICANN to unfreeze its application. The letter also reminded ICANN that its application for the new gTLD .Realtors is a brand application, not a generic application and should be freed from GAC Advice.Oh by …

ICANN Denies Booking.com Request To Reconsider String Similarity Panel Ruling; Sounds Like Bad News On Cam Vs Com

In turning down Booking.com request for reconsideration the ICANN Board appears to also have bad news for those that think the Board will step into settle the .Com Vs .Cam split decisions.As for Booking.com ton July 7th 2013, they submitted a  the ICANN Board to reconsider the ICANN staff action of 26 February 26th 2013, …

ICANN Publishes the Dotless Domain Name Study

5 August 2013 ICANN is pleased to announce the publication of the Dotless Domain Name Security and Stability Study Report [PDF, 1.02 MB] by IT Security firm, Carve Systems LLC (Carve Systems). Dotless domain names are those that consist of a single label (e.g., http://example, or mail@example). Dotless names would require the inclusion of, for …

DotConnectAfrica Comments and Questions on .Africa at the ICANN-47 Public Forum, Durban SA

Below is a complete unabridged version of the comment/questions raised by Ms. Sophia Bekele, Executive Director and CEO of DotConnectAfrica Trust, at the ICANN-47 Public Forum Meeting in Durban, Republic of South Africa on 18th July 2013. A shorter version was read out at the ICANN Public Forum Meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2013 due …

ICANN Legal Rights Objections: What’s Past Is Prologue

As of today, panelists at the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Center have decided 12 trademark-based legal rights objections to a proposed top-level domain under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ new gTLD initiative. They rejected every one, almost categorically so. With 53 legal rights objections remaining to be decided, the …

DotConnectAfrica requests for re-consideration of the NGPC Decision on its .africa application to the ICANN Governance Board

DotConnectAfrica is anticipating a review and reinstatement of their application for .africa gTLD string that has been in the center of controversy in the past two years since ICANN announced the major expansion of the Internet name space in Singapore. DotConnectAfrica’s application has been through enough hurdles that they have overcome. These include the change …

DotConnectAfrica’s (DCA) response on “.africa” (dotAfrica) Reserve Name Policy Discussions on KICTANET

On Monday July 1, Barrack Otieno introduced a discussion topic on Kictanet titled “dot Africa Reserve Name Policy Discussions (Introduction)” which tended to give the impression that the “.Africa” (DotAfrica) gTLD had already been delegated by ICANN to South Africa’s UniForum.   Soon after Barrack’s post, listers started seeking enquiries, with Michael Bullut asking for …