The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
announced yesterday that it has finalised accreditation agreements
with the new .biz and .info top-level domain (TLD) registries. This
will mark the first introduction of new global top-level domains
since the mid 1980s when the current domain name system became
operational.
The .info domain will be unrestricted, open to any business or
person to register for any purpose. However, .biz will be a
restricted TLD open only for commercial or business purposes and
.biz names are not intended for exclusively personal or
non-commercial purposes.
Registry operators NeuLevel (.biz) and Afilias (.info) were
among seven registry operators for new TLDs selected by the ICANN
Board of Directors in November 2000 following an open process for
submission of proposals. Agreements with the operators of .aero,
.coop, .museum, .name, and .pro are expected shortly.
All ICANN accredited registrars in good standing for .com, .net
and .org will be eligible to enter into revised accreditation
agreements for the new TLDs. Currently, there are more than 170
companies accredited with approximately 80 operational. Retail
pricing for the new domains is expected to be similar to pricing
for .com names.
ICANN explained the application processes as follows:
- Beginning in late May through the beginning of July, .biz will
offer a fee-based service for businesses to submit trade mark
claims before the application process is opened. Under this
service, domain-name applicants will be notified of a trade mark
owner's claim when they submit an application for a claimed name
and, if they decide to go ahead with the registration, the business
submitting the claim will be notified of the registration and will
be given a window of opportunity to challenge the registration
using an administrative dispute resolution procedure.
- Beginning in July through late September, .biz will open the
application process for businesses. Businesses will submit their
applications through registrars; these applications will be
randomly selected in batches and awarded. Businesses can submit an
unlimited number of applications but there will be a $2.00 fee for
each application for a .biz name.
- In October, .biz names that have been awarded will become
operational. .biz will use a Restriction Dispute Resolution Process
(RDRP) similar to the ICANN UDRP process to resolve challenges
related to the business-only restricted nature of the
registry.
- Beginning in late June and ending in late July, Afilias will
offer a 30 day "sunrise" period during which anyone with a
registered national trade mark can apply through a registrar for a
.info domain name corresponding to the trade mark. Trade mark data
will be provided at the time of application and the term of the
domain name registration will be for at least 5 years.
- To assure fair and equal access during the sunrise period,
registrars will first collect applications and deliver them to
Afilias. Afilias will then implement a multi-round batch processing
system in which it will randomly select applications from each
registrar's batch.
- The World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO) will
administer a challenge procedure through which any third party may
challenge these sunrise period registrations to ensure that they
comply with the applicable requirements. This challenge process
will be available for approximately 120 days after Afilias begins
accepting applications for .info domain names from the general
public, ending in November.
- Within 15 days after the conclusion of the sunrise period,
Afilias will begin accepting applications for .info domain names
from the general public. To ensure that ordinary internet users
have an equal chance to register names during the initial launch
phase, .info names will be registered using a multi-round batch
process similar to the one used for sunrise period applications.
Using this process, Afilias will randomly select applications from
batches submitted by each registrar.
- This process is an alternative to a pure
first-come-first-served system which could operate to the unfair
advantage of those with mechanised registration scripts. This batch
process will last approximately three weeks, after which Afilias
will process applications on a real-time basis.
- Names awarded during the sunrise period will become operational
one week after the beginning of the general application and
registration process. The remainder of the awarded .info names will
become operational promptly after Afilias processes them.
