Domain Name News: “Mozilla Thunderbird integrates Hover and Gandi as domain registration providers” plus 2 more

Mozilla Thunderbird integrates Hover and Gandi as domain registration providers
ICANN confirms new gTLD batching system will be open for business, Digital Archery set to kick off
Domain world set to explode, brand owners must pay attention says IP lawyer

Mozilla Thunderbird integrates Hover and Gandi as domain registration providers

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 08:49 PM PDT

Mozilla, a global non-profit organization dedicated to making the web better, has announced the new release of Mozilla Thunderbird version 13. The new version of the popular e-mail client aims to simplify and personalize the e-mail experience. In the official update on it’s blog, Mozilla revealed a strategic domain registration partnership with European based Gandi.net and North American based Hover.com (a Tucows company).

Mozilla has made it possible to sign up instantly for your very own custom new email address under your new domain name directly from within the Thunderbird program. Along with your personalized email address, Thunderbird will be automatically setup and configure everything so that you are ready to send and receive messages within no time under @yourveryowndomain.com. This streamlined process is sure to be a big hit with users that aren’t that tech savvy or know how to register domain names.

Gandi.net and Hover.com Domains

Thomas Stocking, COO of Gandi USA said: “More than any possible commercial potential, what really makes us happy is the vote of confidence in Gandi that Mozilla cast. It’s great to be working with such a dedicated, efficient team who share many of our core values. Our teams have worked on the integration of this offer in Thunderbird in recent weeks, and we have streamlined the process of account creation to make the transaction as smooth as possible.”

About Hover

Hover.com is a Tucows Inc company. According to the company’s website; in a sea of uncertainty, complexity and pushy sales pitches, Hover offers domain and email owners a breath of fresh air. Hover makes it easy to buy, manage and use domain names and email addresses. With smart, usable tools, step-by-step tutorials and a warm, knowledgeable staff, we are the first choice for customers who want to get neat stuff done on the Internet without the hassles that have become commonplace in the industry.

Tucows, the parent company of Hover, offers a few other domain related services/products. OpenSRS is the wholesale unit of Tucows, exclusively focused on the needs of domain name resellers. YummyNames is the company’s premium domain names marketplace which helps startups, retailers, publishers, marketers and entrepreneurs get the perfect domain name

About Gandi

Gandi.net was one of the first domain name registrars approved by ICANN for .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .BE, .FR, .EU domains in France according to their website. The company now offers over 100 extensions to choose from (gTLD’s and ccTLD’s) and continues to add to this list on a regular basis.

Gandi SAS was founded in 1999 by three individuals who were highly regarded in the French internet world. In 2005 the company was acquired by an experienced European management team within the same field, in order to create an alternative and independent line of internet services based around domain names. Gandi has offices in Paris (France), Baltimore (USA) and Vancouver (Canada). The company manages more than one million domains from close to 200 countries.

In the official announcement, Mozilla also revealed that they are currently working with additional domain registration suppliers (registrars / partners) to cover more geographic areas of the world, and to provide more options in future.

ICANN confirms new gTLD batching system will be open for business, Digital Archery set to kick off

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 01:47 PM PDT

In an official announcement, ICANN has confirmed that Digital Archery aka Batching Process will begin June 8th, 2012 (tomorrow). The batching process will determine which new gTLD applications are going to be processed in the first batch, the second batch, etc. It will be done by assignment of a timestamp, and the formation of batches.

According to ICANN, the batching system is targeted to open on June 8th 2012 at 00:01 UTC. The system will close at 23:59 UTC on June 28 2012, in other words it will be open for business for around three weeks. The target date for posting the order of the batches is July 11, 2012. The announcement will be eagerly awaited.

“Timestamp assignments will be done using the TLD Application System (TAS). All applicants must use their TAS credentials to log in, read and accept the batching rules, indicate their batching preference, and select their target date and time. Once these steps are completed applicants should log back into TAS to hit the target time and generate a secondary timestamp. Users will have access to a testing feature to gauge the secondary timestamp system’s response time.”

Batching formation will take into account an applicant’s: batching preference, geographic region and secondary timestamp; and contention among identical and/or similar applications, which we already know there will be plenty of.

ICANN Batching Digital Archery

ICANN says that they have tried to provide a stable and secure platform for the batching system to be effective. Users will connect to the Citrix XenApp high-availability cluster and will then log into the batching system to complete the process.

Applicants will be required to agree to a set of Batching Rules, including an agreement that reads: “ICANN reserves the right to delay an application to the last batch or to reject an application entirely if ICANN reasonably determines that the applicant abused the batching system or intentionally interfered with the performance of the system or any other applicant’s use of the system.”

ICANN has also posted several additional Digital Archery resources on it’s website to inform applicants about the batching process. The newly available material includes a FAQ, video demo of the system, user guide, batching details and rules, and a fact sheet of batching basics. Information on security, infrastructure, and operations is also available in these newly released materials.

Domain world set to explode, brand owners must pay attention says IP lawyer

Posted: 07 Jun 2012 07:30 AM PDT

Josh Jarvis, an associate with Foley Hoag LLP, who personally specializes in intellectual property matters and domain related issues such as UDRP’s, says that next week ICANN’s reveal day presents an early opportunity for various companies, organizations and brand owners to identify potential benefits and risks associated with the 1,900+ proposed new gTLD applications.

All companies should be actively planning to review the gTLD list upon publication to determine whether they should comment on, object to, or register second-level domains in one or more of the various new generic top level domains that we may see going live sometime in early 2013.

Josh advises all brands to mark June 13th 2012 on their calendar and pay close attention to ICANN’s Big Reveal news conference in London: “Each brand owner should carefully review the published gTLD application list and identify the top-level domains in which it makes sense to register brands at the second level during the relevant sunrise periods, or afterward during the general registration periods.”

Some relevant questions for companies evaluating potential second-level registrations, according to Josh, include:

Is the gTLD in question related to our industry or industries, or represent a vertical or field to which we might expand in the future? Does this domain name represent a new business opportunity, or will it otherwise be actively used by the company?
Is the gTLD in question likely to be popular?
Is the brand we are considering registering at the second level famous or well-known such that registration by a third party is inevitable if we do not register it first? If so, it is likely to cause harm to the company or brand, or be a mere annoyance?
Is the brand in question owned by unrelated entities in foreign jurisdictions that would have equal claims to corresponding second-level domain names?
Is the company willing to bear the annual renewal cost for this and all other second-level registrations, especially if the registrations are purely “defensive” in nature?
Does registration of this second-level domain name otherwise make sense given the company's overarching domain name acquisition and enforcement strategy?

Josh goes on to say: “Some of these questions may not have easy answers, but they can be helpful starting points to determining company- and brand-specific criteria for developing and refining second-level registration strategies within the new gTLDs.”

In his blog post titled “The Impending Domain Name Explosion: Why Brand Owners Must Pay Attention on “Reveal Day” June 13“ he also talks about risks at the top level, opportunities at the second level and availability of post-launch remedies for brand owners. Josh says everybody should keep an eye on things as they play out over ICANN. He wrapped up the post by saying:

“The initial gTLD application window has passed, but this first round of applications will be pending for many months before even a single new gTLD is "delegated" — entered into the domain system. In the meantime, the myriad forces involved in ICANN policymaking, including domain name registries and registrars, service providers, intellectual property owners, governments, and ICANN itself, will be working to clarify gTLD implementation issues that have yet to be finalized, improve gTLD program aspects that require retooling, and otherwise influence the New gTLD Program going forward.

While the majority of the New gTLD Program is not going to change at this point, at least for this initial round of applications, key changes — e.g., a revised URS — could affect trademarks owners' approaches to domain name acquisition and enforcement strategy. Accordingly, it is imperative that all brand owners continue to pay close attention to these developments”

Joshua S. Jarvis is the editor of Foley Hoag's Trademark & Copyright Law blog. You can read his full bio here.

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