Presentation at ICANN meeting shows slow progress.
Like many things in the new top level domain name program, the launch and acceptance of .brand top level domain names has been slower than a lot of people hoped. But slowly but surely, new websites on domain extensions matching brands are finding their way to the internet.
The .Brand Registry Group, an advocacy group for .brand domain names, gave an update during the ICANN Abu Dhabi meeting earlier this month.
Of the 1,930 new top level domain applications, 1/3 were for .brands. 44% of the new TLDs delegated are .brands, the group calculates.
267 .brands have more than just nic.brand registered, and a total of 8,154 second level domains are registered under all .brand TLDs. The group says there are 1,239 active websites under .brand domains.
The presentation (pdf) highlights some of the early uses of .brand domains, including Amazon’s BuildOn.aws.
Despite numerous companies that applied for new TLDs in the first round backing out, there still seems to be demand for .brand domains in subsequent rounds.
The .Brand Registry Group is advocating for changes in future rounds to benefit .brands. The initial applicant guidebook tried to shoehorn .brands into a program originally designed for generic domains open to the public. Some changes that would benefit .brands include a reduction of financial disclosures, restricted zone file access, and allowing the use of protected geographic domains at the second level. (See comment below. I believe this is also something the brands want, but the reference in the presentation was related to domains like .Amazon at the top level.)
David Thornton says
“Some changes that would benefit .brands include…” “…allowing the use of protected geographic domains at the second level.”
I think you may have misread the PDF with respect to the above. The document actually says “No restrictions to the use of geographic terms at the top level for applicants that hold a matching trademark, whereby the use of the TLD is to identify the brand and not to represent the geographic term, and where there is no conflict with national or international law.”
This is squarely aimed at Amazon who are still unable to secure .amazon at the first/top/root level. It’s nothing to do with domain names at the second level (e.g. whatever.brand) unless you can see something else that I haven’t.
Thanks. 🙂
Andrew Allemann says
You’re right…I misread that. I believe they also want it to be easier to use domains like us.brand, but that wasn’t in the presentation.
James Stevens says
Assignment of geographic names as gTLDs is what WT5 (Work Track 5) is looking into – looks like they are still looking for volunteers
https://community.icann.org/display/NGSPP/Work+Track+5%3A+Geographic+Names+at+the+Top-Level
“Work Track 5: Geographic Names at the Top-Level”
Snoopy says
If the an organization called “.brand advocacy group” is saying things have been slow then you can be sure .brand is dead!