Domain Name News: “Digital Archery, ICANN’s batching process started.. But will it survive the domain industry’s scrutiny?” plus 1 more

Digital Archery, ICANN’s batching process started.. But will it survive the domain industry’s scrutiny?

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 06:04 PM PDT

It looks like every single day now there are more and more companies that are anti Digital Archery, stepping up their efforts in order to scrap or suspend as a whole what’s being called a flawed batching process. Companies want to find a different solution than what Digital Archery currently is. Just today MarkMonitor voiced out their concerns and joined the club.

Others that have already sent letters and/or complained include Neustar which posted an open letter to ICANN on their site yesterday, ARI Registry Services, Melbourne IT and NetNames.

ICANN Batching

The intellectual property community and big brand lawyers from all over the world are frustrated with the batching process as well. Blogs, forums and other inner circles are buzzing with all kinds of speculation and concerns. So what we know for sure so far is that the Digital Archery has kicked off officially today, but whether it does what it is suppose to — decide once and for all which of the new generic top level domain applications gets into which batch and the order of such, remains to be seen.

Yesterday, FairWinds Partners wrote on it’s gTLD Strategy blog:

“Learning the results, particularly what applications are in Batch 1, will be important because the success of the gTLDs delegated in the first batch could set the tone for the delegation of new gTLDs in all other batches.

But as this is all unfolding, the critics of the Digital Archery are not exactly giving up: just today, ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) made clear its intention to send a letter to the ICANN Board offering its "advice" on the Digital Archery process and recommending that ICANN not move forward with Digital Archery prior to that.

So while ICANN did clarify a number of batching issues with this announcement, it seems safe to say that nothing is really settled just yet.”

The batching process seems to be getting messier by the day as more and more people are speaking their minds. Stay tuned, as things play out! DNN will of course monitor the situation from all angles and cover any other Digital Archery issues or updates that arise.

Brand owners/trademark holders: The top 10 things to do on ICANN’s upcoming new gTLD’s “reveal day”

Posted: 08 Jun 2012 07:07 AM PDT

ICANN will hold a special news conference in London UK on June 13th 2012, only days from now, where they will finally unveil the gTLD applicants and strings. The "big reveal" event as everybody is calling it, will finally shed some light on which city’s, governments, companies, brands, organizations, domain registry start-ups, and others have applied for .whatever under the new gTLDs program.

Doug Isenberg, a domain name attorney and founder of the GigaLaw firm, writes in his latest blog post: “Reveal Day is likely to create a lot of confusion among all except those who have followed these developments most closely.” In anticipation of widespread misunderstandings among trademark owners, mainstream media and average internet users, Doug has decided to create top 10 list of the most important things to do which you can find quick summaries of below.

Review the list of new gTLDs published by ICANN.
Don't panic.
Begin to consider whether you might want to file any objections
If you applied for one or more gTLDs, prepare to respond to any objections.
Watch for more details about the Trademark Clearinghouse.
Remember the UDRP.
Don't get excited about the URS.
Don't question whether you should have applied for a gTLD of your own
Ignore the press.
Talk with your attorney. Now.

To read the detailed explanations and suggestions for each of the above “most important things to do on ICANN’s big reveal day” which happens June 13th 2012, head on over to Doug’s blog which provides insights and analysis about ICANN, new generic top level domains, the UDRP, domain name disputes and related legal issues.