ICANN issued this statement on name collision report last night and the effect it will have in contracting:

“ICANN has solicited community comment on the mitigation steps outlined in the staff recommendation paper, with a comment close date of 27 August 2013 23:59 UTC. Pending receipt of community feedback on the staff mitigation proposals, ICANN intends to proceed with New gTLD applications as follows:

• Low Risk – Eligible applicants will be invited to begin contracting and may proceed through contract execution of a Registry Agreement. Delegation of Low Risk strings will be held until we have evaluated community comments and settled on appropriate mitigation measures.

• Uncalculated Risk – Eligible applicants will be invited to begin contracting. Execution of registry Agreements will be held until we have evaluated community comments and settled on appropriate mitigation measures.

• High Risk – Applicants will not be invited to begin contracting until we have evaluated community comments and settled on appropriate mitigation measures.

We encourage the community to submit comments on name space collision and appropriate mitigation measures to assist ICANN in considering these matters.