Is it just me, or is the ICANN site as slow as treacle for everyone? If so, you can download everything here.

All the ICANN TLD application materials are listed on this page, annotated and downloadable. I’ve included a short explanation of each so that you can decide what you need.

REMEMBER: These are only drafts. There will likely be changes throughout. If you see something you think should be changed, send ICANN a comment.

Note: If you use letter-size (U.S.-size) paper, set your printer to “shrink to fit page width” or you will have no page numbers and the diagrams will be missing their edges. These are all PDFs.

ICANN’s Guide
The Guide (Oct 24, 97 pages, 1.9MB), officially entitled “New gTLD Program: Draft Applicant Guidebook (Draft RFP).” The cumbersome title emphasizes that the Guide is actually the same thing as the long-awaited Draft RFP. The Guide is comprehensive and consists of 5 Modules:

• Module 1: Introduction. Describes the different stages of the application. Not everyone will have to go through all of the stages. First, you pay your money - an estimated $185,000 (there are more fees if you end up in a dispute). There’s the application, initial evaluation, extended evaluation, objection (someone hates your idea), contention (someone has the same name/idea), dispute resolution, contract, and so on. Also quickly covered are filing dates (which aren’t included yet); payments; deadlines; refunds; and new technical requirements, mostly to do with IDNs.
• Module 2: Evaluation Procedures. Covers the procedures for initial and extended evaluation. Of particular interest is ICANN’s string-similarity algorithm for what they call ’string contention’ (same or similar TLD names from different parties), through which all applications must pass, which compares your TLD name not only with other applications, but with existing TLD names and those new IDN ccTLDs coming into being through the ccTLD IDN fast-track procedure. Also covered are reserved names (a list of 34 geeky Internet names such as “IETF” and “RFC-EDITOR”), geographical names (see the Explanatory Memorandum below), and technical issues. Of great practical interest are the sections on financial and technical stability.
• Module 3: Dispute Resolution Procedures. This depressing module covers what happens in the case of objections, confusing similarity to trademarks, violations of public morality(?!), and so on. The take-away is that dispute resolution is very expensive, it’s pretty much a black hole, and you might lose everything. Or you might win. Depending on the nature of the dispute (is it geographical, what community if any is affected, etc.), different expensive panels will be convened. There might be a flat fee, it might be hourly. There is no appeal, and you agree not to sue.
• Module 4: String Contention. Even more of a buzz-kill than Module 3, this section has to do not with pre-existing rights, but with different applications for the same (or similar) names. If you’re applying for .web or .email or .search or some other brilliant idea that just maybe occurred to someone else as well, this is required reading. If you have investors, they’re going to want to know about this, because this is where the risk is. In Module 3, you can have a decent idea if you’re potentially violating someone’s rights or not. In Module 4, however, there’s no way to know in advance if someone is applying for the same name as you are. In certain cases, you might have to go to auction. Given the huge downside for every party involved in contention (except the one winner), I’d have preferred that ICANN throw everyone in a rubber room to see if they can’t work things out, before going to the all-or-nothing death match.
• Module 5: Transition to Delegation. If you get to this stage, you’re pretty happy, at least until you see the fee from ICANN: $75,000 or 5% of your registration revenue, payable quarterly. (So much for TLDs for small ethnic minorities, small-membership groups, and the like.) Most of this section concerns various technical registry responsibilities (DNSSEC, IPv6, etc.).

ICANN’s Explanatory Memoranda. These shorter papers delve deeper into areas of possible concern or confusion.

• String Contention (Oct 22, 32 pages, 1MB). Insanely complicated. Let’s hope you don’t have to go there. But if you think that you’re not the only one with your name/idea for a new TLD, you should probably memorize it.
• Geographic Names (Oct 22, 9 pages, 175KB). ICANN correctly notes that they don’t have to do what the GAC (Government Advisory Committee) tells them to. Then, for the most part, they go ahead and do it anyway, despite the recommendations of the GNSO. In short, if you’re going for the name of a country (on the ISO-3166-1 list) or a territory within a country (the ISO-3166-2 list), or the capital city of a country, you’re going to need the permission of the national government. Remember, this applies for names that may be confusingly similar, for instance “.britain,” “.blighty, “.albion,” “.pommyland,” etc. as well as “.unitedkingdom”. Also, permission doesn’t mean a letter from your friend who works at the Sanitation Department: it has to be from that part of the government which handles the Internet. If you’re going after a city name, you just need the permission of the local authorities. If your TLD is not a geographical name, but there happens to be a territory with the same name (e.g., “orange” could be Orange Telephone, or Orange County California), you don’t need permission from a government, but you could be subject to challenge.
• Protection of the Rights of Others (Oct 22, 5 pages, 136KB). This publication says that you have to protect trademarks, but that ICANN doesn’t believe that one size fits all. In all probability, however, one size fits most. You could let someone else’s legal team do the work, then copy their policy and make a few changes. That might be infringing, but I’m just sayin’…
• Cost Considerations (Oct 23, 11 pages, 656KB). This one’s easy — it’s expensive. $185K to apply; if you get caught in the contention/objection ringer, up to another $150K; then add at least $75K/year to ICANN. If someone on your team is annoying you by flipping through sales brochures for Gulf Stream jets, show them this.
• UPDATED OCT 29 - Morality and Public Order (Oct 29, 6 pages, 130KB). See my write-up on this strange document.

ICANN Contracts

• New Base Contract (Oct 24, 96 pages, 152KB) This is the new agreement that you will have to sign if you application is approved. Don’t expect to be able to change much, if anything.
• Summary of Changes to Base Contract (Oct 24, 14 pages, 228KB). A very handy quick-and-dirty guide to the changes in the new contract vs. the old one.

Other

• Update on DNS Stability (Oct 22, 4 pages, 132KB). Rules for IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names)

You can also consult the ICANN New TLD page for updates. I’ll try to update here, but the ICANN page is authoritative.

If there are any non-ICANN materials you think should be included, please let me know in the comments. I’ll be making this post into a permanent page in the next few days.

Tags: ICANN, ICANN application, ICANN TLD application, Guide to New TLDs, ICANN explanatory memorandum

Posted by Antony in: Domains, Guide to new TLDs