Overview of the gTLD Application Process for Brand Owners
Many businesses have spent the past several months learning about and preparing for a further opening of the internet to a near-unlimited number of new, or generic top level domains. When looking at a domain, such as walshiplaw.com, the top level domain is the portion to the right of the dot, or the “.com” in this example. In this first in a series of posts, I will introduce generic top level domains, the application process and suggestions for brand owners who are considering applying for their own .brand.
The application process is overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (“ICANN”). A great deal of information may be found on ICANN’s website, here. The application process itself opens on December 12, 2011 and close on April 12, 2011. The application process for each top level domain is expensive. Also, unlike ownership of brand.com or brand.biz, it is difficult to adopt a defensive-ownership model over .brands.
Applicants are required to submit a fifty-question application along with a $185,000 application fee. The purpose of the application is to determine whether a candidate has the financial and technical capability of managing a domain registry. The application has both publicly-facing and privately-facing questions. The answers to publicly-facing questions shall be released to the public, in part, to facilitate the objection period. The private-facing questions, which include information regarding the applicant’s financial and technical capabilities, as well as background checks on applicant management, shall remain within ICANN. Yes, there is a background investigation component to the application process, a step likely unknown to many applicants.
Along with the application, an applicant must submit a $185,000 application fee. While the process is new even to ICANN, and the fee may not accurately reflect the cost to ICANN of processing an application, its amount reflects two goals. The first aim is to set a bar to cyber-squatters. ICANN has, through its high application fee and background check requirement, made it extremely difficult for cyber-squatters to take hold of multiple .brands, or variations thereof, and hold them for ransom. The second goal is to encourage only those firms who would be capable of managing a domain registry, in both a financial and technical sense, to apply.
The financial burden does not cease with the application process. Once an application is granted and responsibility for managing the .brand has been conveyed, the applicant must enter into an agreement with ICANN for the management of the top-level domain. Domain registrars shall be required to make quarterly payments of $6,250, at a minimum, to ICANN.
The application process is lengthy. According to information from ICANN, if an application were to sail through without objection, the applicant would be able to begin operating their .brand domain in approximately nine months. If an objection were to be raised to an application, applicants likely will not be able to take control of their .brand for at least twenty months, if not more. The objection period, which would commence two weeks after the close of the application process in late April 2012, and will run until November 27, 2012.