CircleID

The window to submit new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) applications to ICANN closed on 30 May 2012. TLDH has submitted 92 applications in total on behalf of clients and its own account. In addition to geographical names, the Company's applications included the areas of sports, lifestyles, ecology, entertainment, culture and ethnicity and professions.

Peter Dengate Thrush, the Company's Chairman, said: "We are very pleased with the momentum of the new gTLD program. We have applied for a substantial and diverse portfolio of new gTLDs and are excited about the prospects for the Group."

As previously announced, TLDH has submitted 5 gTLD geographic applications for or in association with the cities of London, Miami, and Budapest, together with the German States of Bayern and Nord-Rhein Westfalen, all with the backing of each city or region's governing body. The Company is also providing back-end registry services for a further 18 applications made by clients of the Company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Minds + Machines, including .rugby by the International Rugby Board and .basketball with FIBA, the International Basketball Federation.

TLDH has submitted a further 68 gTLD applications on its own behalf, and one application as a joint venture in .music. In aggregate, the Company's application fees amounted to US$13,597,500.

The gTLDs that the Company has applied for on its own behalf are:

As the application window has now closed, no more applications are being accepted by ICANN. One hour before the closing of the application window, ICANN announced that it had received "just over 1900 applications". ICANN has further announced that it will publish the non-confidential portions of applications on 13 June 2012 (the "Reveal Date"). On the Reveal Date, the names of all the gTLDs that have been applied for, and by whom, will be made public by ICANN.

ICANN has determined that as it cannot evaluate all the new gTLD applications simultaneously, it will process the gTLD applications in batches. ICANN intends to announce which gTLD applications fall into which batch on 11 July 2012. ICANN expects to have evaluated the first batch of applications in about six months and those passing will proceed, if uncontested, into delegation.

During the next six months, TLDH will focus its efforts on marketing and operations for geographic names such as dot London and dot Bayern where it has the exclusive support of the relevant governing authority, as well as any other gTLDs that TLDH has filed for that are confirmed to be uncontested on the Reveal Date. Discussions with other applicants regarding contested names will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

No applications were submitted on behalf of the Group's client, India TL Domain Pvt Ltd, in respect of Indian cities including Mumbai and Bangaluru.

About Top Level Domain Holdings Limited

Top Level Domain Holding is a publicly traded holding company listed on the London AIM market. The company is focused on the new top-level domain space. Top-level domains, such as .com, run by VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), and .biz, run by Neustar (NYSE: NSR), are regulated by ICANN. ICANN has announced plans to expand the number of top-level domains. TLDH is making targeted investments in this space, focusing on both infrastructure technologies and specific top-level domains.

About Minds + Machines

Minds + Machines provides registry services for new top-level domains. (Learn More)

Related topics: Registry Services, ICANN, Top-Level Domains