ICANN aims to open up new top level domains from mid 2009

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 25 November 2008 10:03

Business IT - Networking

He added that some potential applicants were happy with this but that "those wanting domains for small niche applications or for community names are a bit disturbed by that number. So there is more discussion around it."

He said that ICANN was not going to be the arbitrator any disputes. There will be a mechanism for dealing with objections from people claiming prior rights to a name, for example if someone tried to register .maori and they were wanting to run a clothes store in the US, but, "It will largely be a case of first come first served," Twomey said. "If two people apply for the same domain we will give then three months to go and sort it out between themselves."

If that does not work, Twomey admitted that some dispute resolution mechanism would have to be put in place, but suggested it could be as simple as "flipping a coin", although he acknowledged that auctions were perhaps the soundest commercial mechanism.

However he also sought to dispel any speculation that ICANN was keen to hold auctions for popular gTLDs as a revenue generating exercise.

"There is a potential out there that we want to have auctions because we want to make money. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would be very happy if we had no auctions at all."

Twomey said that the policies and procedures, contract terms etc for the new gTLDs were still very much open to discussion and ICANN was seeking feedback from all interested parties. He pointed to the relevant section of the ICANN web site where the draft implementation programme is set out in great detail, along with a draft applicant guide book.