Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News

Domain Name Industry News

Featured Domains

register.to

ICANN moves Spring Break online over Coronavirus fears

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

ICANN goes virtual, INTA moves to the U.S.

Picture of beach party with the words "spring break 2020 e-edition"

No beach party for policy wonks.

There will be no cavorting with college students on the beach in Cancun next month for domain policy wonks after all.

ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, has moved its March meeting planned for Cancun to the internet. The meeting will still happen but it will be virtual. All sessions will be held via remote participation.

Fears of spreading a coronavirus, Covid-19, led to the change.

There’s no concern of picking up the virus from locals in Mexico. But many people travel to the conference, including many people from China and surrounding areas.

In a separate announcement, International Trademark Association (INTA) announced that it is moving its April meeting planned for Singapore to a location in the United States.

.XXX registry and many other domain companies head to INTA meeting next week

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

There’s money in brand protection.

9,000 people are expected to attend the International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting in Washington, DC May 5-9. Some of the topics on the agenda for next week include domain names and how companies can protected their brands in an expanding top level name space.

There will be a lot of domain name companies in attendance. Here are some that are exhibiting:

101domain.com
DomainTools
GoDaddy
ICM Registry (.xxx registry)
Key-Systems
Marksmen Inc.
Melbourne IT DBS
Safenames LTD

You may be surprised to see ICM Registry on the list, but it makes perfect sense. Many of its customers are trademarks holders who want to protect their brands. I suspect ICM will also start talking up its plans to help trademark holders by applying for several other adult top level domains, such as .sex.

Trademark Group Hijacks New TLD Comments

by — Policy & Law 18 Comments

INTA asks members to submit comments in opposition to Expressions of Interest for new TLDs.

Last month ICANN opened up a comment period on its Draft Expressions of Interest/Pre-Registrations Model (EOI), which I’ve written about before.

I checked in today hoping to see some constructive comments on the EOI draft, such as costs and procedures. Instead, I was greeted with short, terse comments such as:

“I do not support ICANN’s acceptance of pre-registrations for new gTLDs.”

Wow, comments like that are really going to help ICANN resolve this!

About a dozen comments basically say that ICANN shouldn’t go forward with new TLDs, at least yet before resolving trademark concerns, and thus pre-registrations are premature. The comments are from big names, too: Lockheed Martin, H.J. Heinz, etc.

It was rather suspicious that these groups suddenly chimed in, until I saw this comment:

“As an INTA member I have been encouraged to give my opinion on the pre-registration issue”.

Aha. INTA stands for International Trademark Association. As it turns out, INTA sent an email to its members asking them to post a comment during the comment period.

Now, I have no problem with people posting comments. That’s the point of a comment period. But it would be nice if the people commenting actually understood the issue and what was being asked, rather than saying merely “I oppose”. It’s kind of like when an advocacy group asks its members to sign a form letter to a politician. The politician puts less weight on form letters than unique, well-reasoned letters.

Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News