March 23, 2012 at 12:06Small firm claims 482 top-level domains
Namespace Registrar , a small company from New York, has stated that it has rights to 482 top-level domains, and ICANN has no legal basis to register them at the request of other applicants.
Among the domains “owned” by Namespace were .shop, .hotel, .nyc, .sex, .green and a number of other valuable names that are now claimed by dozens of applicants. A complete list of names can be found here . Namespace Director Alex Mashinsky said the company has filed an application with ICANN to register only some of these domains, but Namespace also owns all other names.
In 1996, Namespace launched an alternative root zone with its own domain name system, in which even then it was possible to register many top-level domains.
The situation seems absurd - there are many alternative (and little used) domain name systems. Some company might have guessed to reserve all the vocabulary words as top-level domains. But Namespace and some other companies have legal grounds for their claims.
The fact is that ICANN began to gradually introduce new top-level domains back in 2000, at the same time the acceptance of applications for new domains was opened. It was at that time that the .biz, .info, .name and .museum zones appeared. At that time, thousands of applications were submitted to ICANN, but only a few domains were delegated.
But you need to pay attention to the fact that ICANN did not give many applicants an unambiguous answer about the refusal to register their domain. Moreover, ICANN did not announce the end of the application period. Thus, applicants who have applied for ICANN registration since 2000 formally have an advantage over those who want to receive a domain under the new gTLD program. Namespace at that time applied for 118 domain names, and also did not receive a refusal reply. The company believes that all of these names should be registered in its name.
Such statements are made not only by Namespace, but also by other companies. For example, Image Online Design, the owner of an alternative DNS, which also filed an application for the .web domain back in 2000, claims that this gTLD should belong to it.
Another point - according to ICANN rules, those who applied back in 2000 receive a discount of $ 86,000. Recall that the cost of applying for a new gTLD is $ 185,000. But the discount is provided for only one application, and Namespace requires a discount on all 118 domains based on their rights to these domains.
Experts warned that the introduction of new top-level domains would entail many completely unpredictable problems, and we are now observing one of them. It’s not an easy task for ICANN lawyers, since from a formal point of view, Namespace and other companies have reasons to demand the right, if not to names similar to domains from their alternative DNS, then at least to the domains that they wanted to register back in 2000 .
Among the domains “owned” by Namespace were .shop, .hotel, .nyc, .sex, .green and a number of other valuable names that are now claimed by dozens of applicants. A complete list of names can be found here . Namespace Director Alex Mashinsky said the company has filed an application with ICANN to register only some of these domains, but Namespace also owns all other names.
In 1996, Namespace launched an alternative root zone with its own domain name system, in which even then it was possible to register many top-level domains.
The situation seems absurd - there are many alternative (and little used) domain name systems. Some company might have guessed to reserve all the vocabulary words as top-level domains. But Namespace and some other companies have legal grounds for their claims.
The fact is that ICANN began to gradually introduce new top-level domains back in 2000, at the same time the acceptance of applications for new domains was opened. It was at that time that the .biz, .info, .name and .museum zones appeared. At that time, thousands of applications were submitted to ICANN, but only a few domains were delegated.
But you need to pay attention to the fact that ICANN did not give many applicants an unambiguous answer about the refusal to register their domain. Moreover, ICANN did not announce the end of the application period. Thus, applicants who have applied for ICANN registration since 2000 formally have an advantage over those who want to receive a domain under the new gTLD program. Namespace at that time applied for 118 domain names, and also did not receive a refusal reply. The company believes that all of these names should be registered in its name.
Such statements are made not only by Namespace, but also by other companies. For example, Image Online Design, the owner of an alternative DNS, which also filed an application for the .web domain back in 2000, claims that this gTLD should belong to it.
Another point - according to ICANN rules, those who applied back in 2000 receive a discount of $ 86,000. Recall that the cost of applying for a new gTLD is $ 185,000. But the discount is provided for only one application, and Namespace requires a discount on all 118 domains based on their rights to these domains.
Experts warned that the introduction of new top-level domains would entail many completely unpredictable problems, and we are now observing one of them. It’s not an easy task for ICANN lawyers, since from a formal point of view, Namespace and other companies have reasons to demand the right, if not to names similar to domains from their alternative DNS, then at least to the domains that they wanted to register back in 2000 .