The future of the Internet will be front and center at ICANN's 29th International Public Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico this week. Meeting topics include the introduction of new gTLDs in 2008, Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), IPv6, and Registrar Accreditation Agreements (RAA), among others.
The .ASIA registry has announced an updated launch schedule. The Sunrise Phase 1 Period (government reserved names) is now scheduled to start October 9 and continue through Land Rush. The Sunrise Phase 2A "Early Bird" Period for trademark holders will also open October 9, and close October 30. Sunrise Phase 2B (general registered marks) and Sunrise 2C (extended protection) will be open November 13, 2007 to January 15, 2008, as will Sunrise 3 (Registered Entity Names). The Land Rush Period is now scheduled to begin in February, followed by first-come, first-served general registrations in March 2008.
The Register reports that anti-spam group Spamhaus has taken the unusual step of adding Austrian domain registry NIC.AT to its blocked list for "knowingly providing services" to hundreds of spam phishing domains run by a Russian cyber crime phishing gang, called 'Rock Phish'. According to an anti-phishing researcher, 69 .AT domain names have been used by the Rock Phisher group since April 17 for criminal purposes. Spamhaus said the lack of co-operation from the registry to shut down fraudulent domain names had become a serious concern to it and other spam fighters in recent weeks, as well as the international banking industry.
The June INTA Bulletin reports that South Africa has launched a new domain name dispute resolution procedure to provide a cost-efficient, fast and practical solution to .CO.ZA disputes.
Two entities have been accredited to administer the new dispute resolution procedure: the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law (SAIIPL) and the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa (AFSA). Complaints regarding a CO.ZA domain name can be filed with either of these organizations. The new .CO.ZA regulations are similar to those WIPO follows in administering the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
Previously, trademark owners in South Africa were obliged to institute trademark infringement proceedings if they discovered a third party had registered a .CO.ZA domain name that incorporated a registered trademark. Since .CO.ZA is not regulated by ICANN's UDRP, complaints cannot be filed through WIPO as they can for other domain names.
DotAsia, the non-profit organization behind the new .ASIA sponsored Top-Level Domain, announced last week that the extension has now been added to the Internet root, thus allowing it to function. The Sunrise period, which will begin in October 2007, will be divided into three phases, with the first stage intended for Governmental Reserved Names, the second phase for Registered Marks (i.e. Trademarks and service marks), and the final stage for Registered Entity Names (i.e. company names, organizations, etc.).
The June INTA Bulletin reports that ICANN has recently revamped its contractual compliance program to ensure that TLD registrars and registries abide by the requirements of their ICANN agreements, which include providing a WHOIS service with accurate information, protecting registration and registered name holder data, complying with minimal functional and performance standards and ICANN registration policies, having a policy and procedure for resolving domain name disputes and following restrictions on the registration of reserved names. According to the article, ICANN intends to implement specific procedures for addressing TLD registrars and registries that are not in compliance with contracts, including investigating alleged violations, conducting regular compliance audits and providing transparent reporting of ICANN's compliance activities.
Domain Name Wire reports that the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), which handles .EU disputes, has filed a proposal with ICANN that suggests several key changes to current UDRP practices, including: providing dispute resolution services in more languages; creating a type of "class action" complaint whereby a single person can file a complaint on behalf of multiple rights holders against a domain owner that infringes on multiple domains (which would allow trademark holders to go after massive cybersquatters more effectively); offering an online platform for lawyers, registrars, and service providers to manage UDRPs; and banning reverse domain name hijackers from filing complaints after three losses.
CAC wants to become the fourth provider of dispute resolution services, in addition to three other organizations that currently provide services (WIPO, the National Arbitration Forum and the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre).
VeriSign Corporate Domain Name Management customers can now place requests for .BIZ Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) that utilize Chinese and Japanese characters. The .BIZ registry launched .BIZ IDNs on a first-come, first-served basis on April 23. IDNs are domain names that are spelled using native language, non-ASCII characters that may not appear in the English alphabet. With over 1.6 million registrations, .BIZ is among the Top 10 most popular extensions. The .BIZ registry currently offers IDN registrations in six languages: Danish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. To see which characters are permitted in each language, visit the .BIZ Web site.
The value of fake goods traded internationally could be as high as $200 billion - larger than the national GDPs of about 150 economies - according to a preliminary study published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), reports Managing Intellectual Property. The OECD says that the figure would be even higher if it included counterfeit and pirated products that are produced and consumed domestically, or if it included pirated digital products distributed online. The statistic is based on figures provided by Customs offices about the value of goods they have seized. Wolfgang Hubner, a counsellor in the OECD's Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, said that this figure is often - but not always - based on the market value of the fake good. The report also analyzes the market for fake and pirated goods and the reasons why people buy them, offers a 17-point framework for assessing the impact of counterfeiting, considers how different countries have tackled the problem and sets out policy recommendations for governments.
The latest Domain Name Industry Brief reports that total domain name registrations reached 128 million, representing a 31 percent increase over the same quarter in the previous year, and a 6 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2006.
New domain name registrations reached 10.7 million during the first quarter of 2007, a signal that strong growth continues for the domain name industry. ccTLDs increased 33 percent year-over-year to 45.7 million, and 5 percent from the previous quarter. Though the approximately 2 million new ccTLD registrations totaled just roughly half of the record-breaking ccTLDs added last quarter, the number reflects an 86 percent increase from ccTLD registrations year-over-year.
VeriSign processed approximately 7 million new registrations for .COM and .NET domain names in the first quarter of 2007. This represented a 13 percent increase over the fourth quarter 2006 and a 13 percent increase over the first quarter 2006. At the close of the first quarter, VeriSign counted 69 million .COM and .NET domain name registrations in the base. This represents a 6 percent increase in the first quarter 2007 compared to the fourth quarter 2006, and a 28 percent increase year-over-year.
The second report is a new one that shows the importance of domain parking, the VeriSign Domain Name and Pay Per Click Advertising Report. The report defines two types of PPC domains. The first are "PPC-repurposed" sites, a term to describe temporary parking pages that registrars show when a domain is registered by a customer but not in use yet. Second are "PPC-intent" domain names, which were registered with the intent of monetizing through parked pages. The report discusses the various ways people find and register these domains, including the five-day grace period and add/drop process.
This is the final reminder that Norid, the Norwegian registry, will launch numeric domain names for .NO on June 13.
The launch schedule is as follows:
June 12: Norid will stop accepting registration requests. Applications received prior to the shut-down will be processed according to the current domain name policy.
June 13: The registry will begin accepting applications again. Applications for numeric domain names will be sorted into a separate queue for lot-drawing. With a few exceptions, all other applications will be processed normally.
June 15: Norid will stop accepting registration requests. If an organization applies multiple times for the same domain name, it will be removed from the lot-drawing queue.
June 18: The Norwegian Post- and Telecommunications Authority will proceed over the drawing of lots. This will randomly determine the order in which the applications will be processed, in cases where there is more than one applicant per name. Norid will then process the applications in the order determined by the NPTA.
June 19: Registrations re-open on a first-come, first-served basis.
Corporate Domain Name Management customers can now request registrations for Mozambique (.MZ), specifically .CO.MZ and .ORG.MZ. Requests can be entered via the Digital Brand Manager. The DNS set up must indicate at least two active name servers. Mozambique has a population of approximately 20 million people and is located in Southeastern Africa between South Africa and Tanzania.
Fundacio PuntCAT, the registry for .CAT, has begun enforcing requirements that all active Web sites contain content in Catalan, the Romance language spoken in Catalonia in eastern Spain (related to Spanish and Occitan). As a sponsored TLD, the registry has the right to delete domain names that do not meet this requirement. Companies that do not wish to or plan to have Web site content in Catalan may choose to request a Defensive Registration in order to prevent a name from being registered by another party.