Home / Blogs

ICANN Releases New gTLD Applicant Guidebook …Would Apple Need Permission from China for .MAC?

Jothan Frakes

The much-anticipated New gTLD Draft Application Guidebook is out!

ICANN has released Version 3. Lots of changes, some minor, some large. All worth reading if you're a potential applicant or just interested in the promise of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs).

The public comment period clock started October 4, and runs until November 22 of this year.

I am still digesting the many volumes of changes but caught this one for example in Module 2 at 2.1.1.4.1 (p. 14):

A string shall be considered to be a country or territory name if: (i) it is an alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard

This means .GEO would have to get a letter of non-objection from the government of Georgia.

It also means that Apple would need a signature from the Chinese government or relevant authority in Macao to apply for .MAC.

An applied-for gTLD string that falls into any the above categories is considered to represent a geographical name. In the event of any doubt, it is in the applicant's interest to consult with relevant governments and public authorities and enlist their support or non-objection prior to submission of the application, in order to preclude possible objections and pre-address any ambiguities concerning the string and applicable requirements.

Congratulations, Apple!

By Jothan Frakes, Domain Name Industry Consultant. Visit the blog maintained by Jothan Frakes here.

Related topics: ICANN, Internet Governance, Top-Level Domains

WEEKLY WRAP — Get CircleID's Weekly Summary Report by Email:

Comments

Don't forget about Estee Lauder Antony Van Couvering  –  Oct 05, 2009 2:42 PM PST

Estee Lauder has a very successful line of cosmetics called "Mac."

Caterpillar and HP are not so fortunate Paul Tattersfield  –  Oct 05, 2009 2:57 PM PST

Caterpillar and HP are not so fortunate as to be able to ask the Chinese Government for a letter of approval.

@Tattersfield Clarifying... Jothan Frakes  –  Oct 05, 2009 4:37 PM PST

Caterpillar and HP are not so fortunate as to be able to ask the Chinese Government for a letter of approval.

Assuming Apple might consider filing for .MAC, I'd not intended to trivialize the application into simply requesting the approval from the Chinese government; rather I was identifying that they have an additional hurdle to leap were they to apply for it.

Antony identified above that Estee Lauder has a line called "Mac", and I can think of a place with a big yellow M logo (if that wasn't clear, think hamburger) as a wider list of people with opportunity to request the string themselves, and/or object to an application.

I was told Caterpiller actually was consulted by PuntCat for them to identify non-significance prior to doing the .CAT Top Level Domain 5 years ago during the purely sponsored round.

Additionally, Hewlett-Packard has some additional hurdles to leap to obtain .HP because two character combinations are reserved for the potential use as country codes against the 2 char ISO3166-1 and their 'exceptionally reserved' codes.

To post comments, please login or create an account.

Related Blogs

Related News

Topics

Industry Updates – Sponsored Posts

Top Level Domain Holdings Raises $14M for New gTLDs

.ORG COO Discusses Priorities With DailyVista, Pursuit of .NGO Domain

StarHub to Acquire '.starhub' New Top-Level Domain

ARI Registry Services Signs 21 Contracts in the First Week of New TLD Applications

MarkMonitor to Exhibit at Internet Tech Policy Exhibition and Reception to be Held on Capitol Hill

Sedari Signs With Dot Moscow Bidders

.ORG, The Public Interest Registry Welcomes Nancy Gofus As Chief Operating Officer

Minds+Machines Works with .bayern

The New Domain For Japan, JP.NET, Launches With Exclusive Invitation to Trademark Owners

Being a .PRO When Choosing a Registry Services Partner

Afilias Acquires Registry Services Corporation, .PRO

Thoughts on Applying for a Generic Top-Level Domain

Sedari Launches "Guess the Numbers Game" for New TLD Program

dot Brand Makes Its Debut: Afilias Advises Companies to Act Now for Successful TLD Applications

Facets of gTLD Registry Technical Operations - Registry Services

Technology and Finance Industries to Dominate New gTLD Applications

.CO Internet Selects Sedo to Broker Previously Unreleased .CO Domain Names

Sedari and NCC Launch Programme to Assist New Registry Operators

Afilias Says "No" to SOPA

.CO Internet Recognized as World Finance 100 Business Leader

Hot Topics

Verisign

Security

Sponsored by
Verisign
dotMobi

Mobile

Sponsored by
dotMobi
Afilias

DNSSEC

Sponsored by
Afilias
Minds + Machines

Top-Level Domains

Sponsored by
Minds + Machines
Neustar UltraDNS

DNS

Sponsored by
Neustar UltraDNS