Current situation surrounding gTLDs
2000-03-24
o Current status of .com registration business and ICANN-accredited registraRs
- From monopoly to competition
- NSI's monopoly
- Introduction of competition to registraR businesses (from
testbed to today's operation)
April 26 until June 24, 1999 (Phase I).
Testbed registrars announced: AOL, CORE, France Telecom, Melbourne IT and
Register.com
Testbed time extended several times.
"Post-Testbed registrars" given ICANN Accreditation during testbed period.
"Post-Testbed registrars" permitted to register in NSI RegistrY before
testbed completed.
Testbed period ended November 1999.
- Agreements among ICANN/NSI/DoC (separation of NSI RegistrY
and NSI RegistraR)
http://www.icann.org/nsi/nsi-agreements.htm
http://www.icann.org/nsi/coopagmt-amend19-04nov99.htm
Agreement reached 10 November 1999. RegistraR and RegistrY should
be separated within 18 months. (Possible change due to recent
announcement of merger of NSIand Verisign.)
o Current status of ICANN-accredited-operational registraRs' business
- Status of accreditation/operation (distribution according to
countries)
List of Accredited, and Accreditation-Qualified RegistraRs
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html
o Relationship between registraR and registrY
- Agreement (with NSI registrY)
- Technical relationship
- Draft submitted to IETF
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-hollenbeck-rrp-01.txt
- Transaction of registered data (RRP: RegistrY RegistraR Protocol)
- Accredited RegistraRs subject to non-disclosure agreement.
o ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy
- Trademarks laws are created to protect consumers from being defrauded
- Or confused as to the source of goods (or services).
- Registrars' position in dispute resolution
- Relationship among registraR, registrY, dispute resolution service
provider
- RegistraR required to block disputed domain to prevent transfer.
- RegistraR required to provide complete contact data to provider.
o How to become an ICANN-accredited registraR
(conditions for qualification)
- Conditions related to businesses (required document)
- RegistraR Accreditation: Documents to Submit or Review
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation-documents.htm
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation-application.htm
http://www.icann.org/registrars/instructions.html
http://www.icann.org/nsi/icann-raa-04nov99.htm
- RegistraR Accreditation: Financial Considerations
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation-financials.htm
- Technical conditions (RRP-compliant system, Whois DB, data escrow, etc...)
- RRP submitted to IETF. However, Accredited Registrars may still be
restricted from making disclosures because of non-disclosure agreement.
- US$1,000 non-refundable application fee, to be submitted with
application.
- US$70,000 in working capital requirement
After approval of application:
- US$5,000 annual accreditation fee (fixed portion).
To NSI:
Non-disclosure agreement with NSI required with software license fee.
US$10,000 one-time SRS software license fee, to be paid before you can
connect to the SRS system.
At this point, applicant can start running tests with NSI OT&E.
US$100,000 performance bond or indemnity bond. Can be handled with a Letter
of Credit.
Payment arrangements with NSI must be completed before you can begin
registering domain names. NSI will require that you provide security for the
registry fees you incur, such as by deposit account in a letter of credit.
Normally, a deposit equal to the estimate number of registration-years per
month (e.g. 1,000 2 year registrations per month times
US$6.00/registration-year requires deposit of US$12,000).
Operational considerations:
1. DNS servers must be in NSI RegistrY.
2. Cannot create child DNS server from parent sld/tld registered by NSI RegistraR
or any other Accredited RegistraR for .com, .org or .net.
3. Can create child DNS server from fully qualified parent domain in ccTLD.
4. Possible problem when parent domain is deleted in NSI RegistrY or ccTLD
registrY.
5. Problems with nameservers and IP addresses found by PING or lookup.
"news.open-news.com" could not be used as nameserver.
6. Strict requirements for transferring domain to another owner.
7. Risks from transferring domain from another accredited registrar.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR NEW gTLDs.
Largest concerns are with trademark "collisions". WG-C: Final report approved 44 to 10 on 20 March 2000. http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/19991023.NCwgc-report.html WG-B Sunrise considerations for Famous Trademarks. What really is a Famous Trademark? One known internationally. One so well known that their rights (and consumer protection) requires that the same or similar mark may not be used to identify the source of dissimilar goods. For example, no one should be permitted to offer a "Kodak" brand sledge hammer or "Kodak" brand Ramen. Reference for more information on famous trademarks: Frederick W. Mostert, editor, FAMOUS AND WELL-KNOWN MARKS: AN INTERNATIONAL ANALYSIS (Butterworths, 1997). Chapter III, "Recognition and Protection of Famous and Well-Known Marks by Jurisdiction", including Teruo Doi, "Japan", pp. 343 to 366. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
