The Expression of Interest (EOI) should hasten and not further delay
the launch of the application round for new gTLDs. This seems to be
the consensus today among the participants of the public forum at the
37th ICANN Meeting being held in Nairobi, Kenya.
The current issue with the pre-application process that is called the
EOI is that the ICANN has not yet made clear whether it would shorten
the time needed before the application process for the new gTLD is launched,
or of it could even make the wait longer, or if other things could be
done alongside it to make sure that the integrity of the application
process is preserved. However, Kurt Pritz, Senior VP-Service at ICANN,
explained that the ICANN Board has yet to decide on whether or not the
EOI will be put in place. Once the EOI is in place, prospective applicants
will make a deposit of US$50,000 to initiate their application process.
Pritz also said that the goal now is for the ICANN staff to work on
the fourth version of the draft applicant guidebook in time for discussion
in Brussels, Belgium in June for the 38th ICANN Meeting. If all goes
well, the fourth version may be the final version of the applicant guidebook
for the new gTLD round. Public comment for the fourth version is targeted
to be done before the meeting in Brussels. This means that it will be
released within the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, a remote participant from Japan speaks up to share with
the community that he sees that many Japanese and Asians are interested
in the new gTLD program not just for the business aspect of it, but
also to establish further their identity on the Internet.
The other issue that was discussed lengthily during the public forum
is trademark protection, which remains a complicated issue, but the
ICANN staff and community are working towards ensuring pre- and post-delegation
process that will protect trademark owners once the new gTLDs are launched.
The ICANN Board is scheduled to meet tomorrow (Friday), to conclude
the 37th ICANN meeting by making decisions on the issues that have been
presented and studied during the entire ICANN week in Nairobi.
