2 major news regarding ICANN new gTLDs

1. ICANN Board has decided NOT to do the Expressions Of Interest pre-registrations ;
2. ICANN Board decided there will be NO CO-OWNERSHIP between registries and registrars for new gTLDs.

Both discussions are open on LinkedIn "Top Level Domains group", please join :

http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=1840166

.BASEL TLD project

As mentioned in the press, the government believes it will cost 342 000 € to set up the registry of the swiss city of Basel and 1.37 million to maintain it yearly.

342 000 € to launch a registry ???

:-)

English is mandatory : not French !

I was reading the transcript of "New gTLD Update and EOI Panel Discussion" dated Monday 8 March and made available here :

Transcript: New gTLD Update and EOI Panel Discussion

A discussion in English only with no possibility to express, question, comment in any other language but English. Note if you want to participate in new gTLD projects, you'd better be able to express yourself in English !

It is possible you also saw this person trying to question panel members in French during the conference. 

The transcript mentions this funny moment :

.DOTFACEBOOK TLD project ?

Domain Name: DOTFACEBOOK.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS57.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Name Server: NS58.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
Status: redemptionPeriodUpdated Date: 01-feb-2010
Creation Date: 21-dec-2006
Expiration Date: 21-dec-2009

>>> Last update of whois database: Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:28:06 UTC <<<

.ISIN Top Level Domain project

International Securities Identification Number for financial products :

www.isin.info

.OSLO Top Level Domain ?

Official press release published here (in Norwegian).

TLD program makes new documents available for discussion

The URS

"The Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) Procedure describes an expedited process to provide trademark holders with a rapid take-down in clear cut instances of trademark abuse."

Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)

The trademark clearinghouse

"The trademark clearinghouse is one of the proposed mechanisms to address trademark protection concerns."

TM Clearinghouse

The Trademark PPDRP

"This post delegation procedure should only afford trademark holders the right to proceed against registry operators who have acted in bad faith."

Post Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (PPDRP)

The RRDRP

"The purpose of the RRDRP is to handle complaints from a harmed organization or individual alleging that a community-based restricted gTLD registry operator was not meeting its obligations."

Registry Restrictions Dispute Resolution Procedure (RRDRP)

Two .VEGAS TLD projects ?

First .VEGAS project seems to come from the company Dot Vegas Inc. (Business Finance Corporation ?) :

www.bfc.cc

Second .VEGAS initiative comes form "The Official VEGAS Travel Site" :

www.vegas.com

An interesting article from the Las Vegas Sun, owned by The Greensspun Corporation which also owns Vegas.com can be read here

.MADRID Top Level Domain

Pre-ordering a .MADRID domain name seems possible here :

http://www.puntomadrid.org/reserva.aspx

.香港 Top Level Domain (Hong-Kong)

.香港' domain name registrations will be offered for free to all .hk registrants in the second half of 2010

More here : https://www1.hkirc.hk/company_info/pressrelease.jsp?item=193