ICANN just approved its 2014 budget which is coming in at over $200,000,000 in revenue. The budget anticipates ICANN staff growing to over 300 people but the real kicker, in our opinion is that ICANN still has virtually no revenue allocated coming in from the "Last Resort" New gTLD auctions. We have noted in past years that ICANN has not allocated any revenue coming in for auction of new … [Read more...]
ICANN Corrects Friday’s New gTLD Initial Evaluation Posting: Taipei Is Eligible for Extended Evaluation
On Friday in releasing its Initial Evaluation results ICANN mistakenly showed that the new gTLD application for the Geographic area of .Taipei failed IE and was not eligible for Extended Evaluation. However today ICANN has correct what was an error on their part and is showing the application for the new gTLD application .Taipei is in fact eligible for extended evaluation. The application … [Read more...]
UPDATED 85 New gTLD Pass ICANN IE, 8 Go To Extended Evaluation; Passing .Rio; .NetFlix; .Ping; .Lamborghini .Tiffany
85 new gTLD applications passed ICANN Initial Evaluation today. In a record setting week where 7 applications were send to extended evaluation and one geographic new gTLD failed the application process and is not eligible for extended evaluation. The 7 New gTLD applications that are heading for extended evaluation are: 818 FRL Metaregistrar B.V. 1186 EXPRESS Express, … [Read more...]
Russian Registrar Regtime Ltd. Lose Two Legal Rights Objections To PIR’s .OPR & .Verisign’s .KOM
Regtime Ltd. and Legato Ltd of the Russian Federation just lost two separate Legal Rights Objections at WIPO on the new gTLD strings .OPR and .KOM In The .OPR case the company objected to the Public Interest Registry (PIR) application of .OPR. PIR operates the .Org registry. The second objection was to Verisign's new gTLD application for .Kom which is the more interesting decision in my … [Read more...]
Vipspace Enterprises LLC Withdraws Application For new gTLD .VIP: Now 118 Withdrawn New gTLD Apps
Vipspace Enterprises LLC of Munich Germany has become the latest company to withdraw its application for the new gTLD .VIP. The application had a prioritization number of 1,804 meaning that after next week's Initial Evaluation release by ICANN the maximum refund would have only been 35% but now the applicant gets a 70% refund. Vipspace becomes the 1st applicant for the .VIP new gTLD to … [Read more...]
Napa Wine Association Letter to ICANN Makes It Clear They Should Have Applied For .Napa/.Wine Instead Of Just Whining
After reading the letter sent by Bruce Cakebread telling ICANN how the 500 members of the Napa Valley Vintners need protection from the new proposed gTLD's of .Wine and .Vin, I walked away thinking that the wine producers of Napa simply missed their chance to apply for .Napa and/or .Wine and now just want to whine about it. In his letter representing the association Mr. Cakebread told ICANN … [Read more...]
ICANN Denies Booking.com Request To Reconsider String Similarity Panel Ruling; Bad News On Cam Vs Com?
In turning down Booking.com request for reconsideration the ICANN Board appears to also have bad news for those that think the Board will step into settle the .Com Vs .Cam split decisions. As for Booking.com ton July 7th 2013, they submitted a the ICANN Board to reconsider the ICANN staff action of 26 February 26th 2013, when the String Similarity Panel placed the applications for .hotels and … [Read more...]