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The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress Announces Keynote, Speakers, Initial Partnerships

The Digital Marketing & gTLD Strategy Congress has made the following announcement for the keynote, speakers, initial sponsors, partners and dates for the inaugural event taking place March 11 & 12, 2013 in New York City. more»

FTC Chief Concerned Over Most New gTLD Bids

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: The US Federal Trade Commission is still "looking at" ICANN's new gTLD program amid concerns that most of the applicants applied defensively, it has emerged. ... "We have been very, very concerned about ICANN and their dramatic expansion of the domain names, which we think will cause consumer confusion and even worse lead to more areas where malefactors can hide from the law while defrauding consumers," FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz said. more»

ICANN's Chairman and CEO Invited to the World Conference on International Telecommunications

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "ICANN's chairman and CEO have been invited to the World Conference on International Telecommunications next week, as "special guests" of the International Telecommunications Union. It's a token gesture of friendship at best, with the invitation only good for the opening ceremony, rather than any substantive policy discussions. But it's a contrast to the ITU's treatment of former ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom..." more»

ICANN Board Starts New Initiative to Tackle gTLD Registration Data Challenges

The ICANN Board of Directors has directed the Chief Executive Officer to launch a new effort to re-examine the purpose of collecting, maintaining and providing access to generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) registration data. The move follows the recommendations of a review team that examined implementation of WHOIS data policy. more»

ICANN Senior Executive Resigns Over Undisclosed Conflict of Interest

Senior vice president Kurt Pritz has resigned his new job as ICANN's Chief Strategy Officer over an undisclosed conflict of interest, reports Kieren McCarthy in .Nxt. "In a note posted on the organization's website earlier today, new CEO Fadi Chehade noted that Pritz had resigned 'because of a recently identified conflict of interest'. ICANN has so far refused to identify what that conflict is." more»

ICANN Asked by Demand Media to "Ignore" Complaints from US Republican Party for the .republican gTLD

Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Last month, the Republican National Committee and the Republican State Leadership Committee submitted comments to ICANN arguing that Demand would be an unsuitable custodian for the gTLD [.republican]. Demand is best known for its "unofficial, mediocre and sometimes incorrect" content farms, such as eHow, the letter (pdf) said..." more»

ICANN Sued by Original .web Applicant

Kevin Murphy reporting on DomainIncite: "Image Online Design, which unsuccessfully applied for the .web gTLD all the way back in 2000, has sued ICANN, alleging trademark infringement and breach of contract. IOD, which says it has over 20,000 .web domains under management in an alternate root, says ICANN never officially rejected its .web bid, and that it should not have allowed other companies to apply for it." more»

ICANN Makes Senior Management Restructure to Fix Organizational Weaknesses

Kieren McCarthy reporting in .Nxt: ICANN's new CEO Fadi Chehade has embarked on a bold restructure of the organization's management on his first day in the job. Announcing two new senior management members -- Sally Costerton as head of stakeholder relations and communications and Tarek Kamel as head of governmental affairs -- Chehade says his focus was on engaging at a global level with stakeholders, building relationships and improving accountability. more»

Rwanda Gets Control Over Its Domain .RW

After a seven-year long process of transferring Rwanda's Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), ".rw" from Belgium, finally Rwandans can now manage their national identity, reports AllAfrica. more»

ICANN Expects New gTLD Applications Processing to Start December

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said it would take up to December to come up with a process for handling the large number of applications for gTLDs (generic top-level domains). There are close to 2,000 applications for gTLDs, and ICANN has said it is only possible to add 1,000 new gTLDs to the Root Zone per year, making it important that the organization evolves a process to handle the applications in batches. more»

Saudi Arabia Objects to Certain Proposed New gTLD Strings Such as .Gay and .Wine

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has objected to a number of proposed new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) including .porn, .sexy, .wine, .bar and .bible, according to records of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). "Many societies and cultures consider homosexuality to be contrary to their culture, morality or religion. The creation of a gTLD string which promotes homosexuality will be offensive to these societies and cultures," says Saudi Arabia's Communication and Information Technology Commission. more»

Congress Still Raising Concerns About ICANN's New gTLD Program

Juliana Gruenwald reporting in the NationalJournal: "Nearly six months after the program was launched, key members of Congress are still raising concerns about a plan to introduce hundreds of new Internet addresses into the domain name systems, saying they want fresh assurances that the new strings will not harm trademark holders and that the public has adequate opportunity to comment. The latest salvo came on Tuesday from the top leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees..." more»

NTIA Awards IANA Functions Contract to ICANN

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today that it has awarded the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The IANA functions are key technical services critical to the continued operations of the Internet's underlying address book, the Domain Name System (DNS). more»

Fadi Chehadé Named as ICANN's New President and CEO

Fadi Chehadé has been named as the next President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Chehadé, age 50, is a citizen of Lebanon, Egypt and the United States. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Egyptian parents and left the then war-torn country in 1980 at the age of 18. He speaks fluent Arabic English, French and Italian. Chehadé succeeds current President and CEO Rod Beckstrom, who announced last August that he would leave ICANN at the end of his contract, which expires on 1 July. Chehadé will join ICANN on October 1 or earlier. Between July 1 and when Chehadé begins, Chief Operating Officer Akram Atallah will be the CEO. more»

ICANN Receives 67 Unique Applications for Chinese gTLDs

At the press conference held in London on June 13, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) officially announced a list of 1930 applications for the new generic top level domain (gTLD). During the 40 years since the launch of the Internet, there are only 22 gTLDs such as .com. The 1930 applications represent a historical change to the Internet; For the first time, Chinese gTLDs will become available and there are 67 unique applications for Chinese gTLDs. more»

Industry Updates

Radix Registry Passes 4 New gTLD Initial Evaluations

.PW Crosses 50,000 Domain Registrations in 3 Weeks

DotConnectAfrica Participates at the ICANN 46 International Meeting in Beijing, China

dot Brand or dot What? Consumers Unaware of New TLDs, Including .Google, .Microsoft and .Nike

Zodiac Prepares for Chinese New gTLDs, Announces "Chinese Advisory Services" for New gTLD Applicants

DotConnectAfrica Clarified Its .africa Bid at the Innovation Africa Digital Summit in Addis Ababa

.PW General Availability Opens With More Than 4000 Orders in 30 Minutes

CentralNic Powers First New Top-Level Domains Announced by ICANN

Invitation to a Seminar on "A New Beginning - Domain Name Market in China"

LogicBoxes Announces Vertical Integration Solutions for New gTLDs

IBCA Called for Inclusion of African Businesses at ICANN Africa Strategy Meeting in Addis Abeba

DCA Registry Services Participates in ICANN Africa Strategy Meeting, Addis Ababa

gTLD Update: No TLDH or Client Strings Affected

Public Interest Registry Opens Call for Expressions of Interest for .NGO & .ONG Domain Registrations

Industry Veteran Wang Jian Joins Zodiac Holdings Ltd as Chief Operating Officer