NGOs and communities can apply for reduced fees for TLD even if the string represents a trademark.
ICANN has relaxed a restriction on trademark top level domain names qualifying for its applicant support program for needy applicants. An updated guidebook for the program was released today.
In the first public iteration of the plan, TLDs that were trademarks for organizations would not be eligible for a reduced application rate of $42,000. The latest version of the program has a caveat:
However, applications for names of communities or non-governmental agencies are not necessarily disqualified from receiving support if they have obtained legal trademark protection.
The program still has a number of flaws that I outlined previously.
And again, if you can’t afford the $185,000 application fee I still maintain you probably can’t afford to run a registry.
The “discount” scheme is a sham. Remember .asia? Afilias paid for *all* of the costs, in exchange for using the .asia applicants as a “face” of the application.
The “discount” is likely going straight into the pockets of the for-profit companies who would use “non-profits” as the “face” of their business, in exchange for running the lucrative backend. See the answer to Q7 archived at:
http://www.webcitation.org/5fuGn3SYT
Similarly, expect for-profits to be herding up captive and phony “communities” to try to score more points on their application. The guidebook has been gamed to death by the contracted parties (registrars, registries, and wannabes). Fortunately, all will be exposed soon enough, once the applications are made public. Then, watch the house of cards collapse.
Right on George!
With individual companies supposedly involved in over 100 applications this doesn’t really surprise me.
I doubt anything major will happen to ICANN with the release of the application info, or even the applicants.
@George: Exposed and then what, read Kieren’s .JOBS case study.