The registry already runs .inc.
ICANN has published an assignment agreement for .llp, the latest of the domains that Frank Schilling’s UNR sold in an auction last year to transfer hands.
Intercap Registry Inc. is the buyer. The domain is a fit for the company because it already owns the corporate identifier domain .inc.
This is the second time .llp has change hands. DotRegistry, LLC sold the top level domain to UNR in April 2020:
.Llp hasn’t launched yet, and that might be because of strict registration requirements that will add friction to the registration process. The contract with ICANN includes a policy requiring registrants to submit information showing they are a registered entity with a name that correlates to the domain they’re registering.
It will be interesting to see how Intercap launches this domain. It markets its .inc domains with a high annual price of about $2,000 and bundles it with free services.
The .llp domain has crippling restrictions, and requires third-party eligibility verification which is not compatible with most registrars’ systems.
Dig into Specification 12 of the registry agreement, starting at page 97 here for some truly outstanding problems:
https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/registry-agreements/llp/llp-agmt-pdf-26aug19-en.pdf
“Registry Operator will work closely with the Secretary of State’s Offices throughout
the United States, with NASS and with a number of other agencies and organizations
in maintaining the integrity and security of its domain names.” – this assumes that either Secretary of States’ offices throughout the US or their national association are interested in working closely with the .llp registry. None of them are interested in doing that.
“Registry Operator or it’s designated agent will annually verify each registrants
community status in order to determine whether or not the entity is still an “Active”
member of the community.”
“Membership verification will be performed via Registry Operator’s designated
agents that which have software systems in place to efficiently interface with each
state’s data records.” – this doesn’t exist, which they seem to acknowledge with:
“If this process is unable to be automated at any given time Registry Operator’s
agents will manually verify the information by contacting the applicable state
agencies.”
Those and other ridiculous restrictions were built into the application to get around perceived resistance by Secretary of States’ offices during the process. These “concerns” were encourage by lobbyists, and had no real teeth to to them, but the .llp registrant contorted themselves into committing to an unbuildable and inoperable system. That’s why this turkey has been passed around twice now.