The public has commented: Verisign’s .net registry contract should not be renewed in its currently proposed form. ICANN’s public comment period for the renewal closed yesterday and attracted 57 submissions, most of which either complained about Verisign being allowed to raise its prices or expressed fears about domains being seized …

The United Arab Emirates reckons its ccTLD saw growth of 20% last year, crossing a landmark in the first quarter this year. Local regulator Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) said that .ae grew by 46,000 domains in 2022 and broke through the 300,000 mark in Q1 2023. Not …

ICANN has just penciled in a date for the next round of new gTLD applications for the first time, but it’s already upsetting some people who think it’s not aggressive enough. Org has released its first draft Implementation Plan for the next round, which would see the next round launch …

Three more new gTLDs from three different registries are set to launch this (northern hemisphere) summer. Identity Digital is gearing up to launch .watches in June, while newcomer Digity will launch .case in July and Intercap will launch .box in August, according to ICANN records. .watches was bought from luxury …

A big bank and a big retailer have ditched their dot-brand gTLDs. Northwestern Mutual has told ICANN it no longer wishes to operate .mutual and .northwesternmutual, while iconic jewelry store operator Tiffany said it doesn’t want .tiffany any more. Neither gTLD has been used. The Northwestern registry pages contain a …

Right Of The Dot has published the list of domains it hopes to help auction off during the forthcoming NamesCon 2023 conference in Texas, and my highlight has to be woke.com. ROTD said in a press release that the headline lots of the auction, which seems to have 451 listed …

The customer suing Epik and its management over a fumbled $327,000 domain deal has asked a US court to prevent the company from selling off its assets and “absconding”. Matthew Adkisson has amended his fraud complaint, first filed in March, to demand an injunction: enjoining Defendants from transferring, liquidating, converting, …

The .web gTLD appears unlikely to see the light of day any time soon, after the Afilias spin-off that came second to Verisign in the $135 million auction in 2016 kicked off another appeals process. Altanovo, which is made up of bits of Afilias left over when Identity Digital acquired …

CentralNic has started paying a dividend and has announced another share buyback as it focuses less on aggressive M&A and more on organic growth. The company, which makes about a quarter of its revenue from domains, said it will spend £4 million of its cash reserves buying back shares between …

A trawl through the latest zone file for Google’s newly launched .zip gTLD reveals that it is likely to be used in malware and phishing attacks. .zip is of course also a filename extension used by the ZIP archive format, often used to compress and email multiple files at once, …

Pace towards finalizing the details of the next new gTLD application round is picking up, with a group of policy-makers close to overcoming some of the ICANN board’s concerns about the program. A so-called “small team” of GNSO members, aided by a couple of ICANN directors, have drafted a set …

The group representing dot-brand gTLD registries has asked ICANN to relieve its members of millions of dollars of annual fees. The Brand Registry Group has written to ICANN to complain that the current $25,000 a year fixed registry fee is too high, given that most dot-brands have next to no …

ICANN has published its fiscal 2022 US tax returns, revealing as usual the big bucks its top brass and contractors are paid for boldly keeping the internet stable and secure. It was a good year for former CEO Göran Marby, who held the top job until the end of calendar …

Two of the industry’s largest registrars saw weakness in their first-quarter revenues which they attributed largely to a lack of high-priced secondary market sales. This lumpier and less-predictable side of the market saw Tucows overall domains revenue down 4% in the period, while GoDaddy saw its “core platform” revenue down …

An accredited registrar appears to have gone bust after its parent company failed. ICANN has sent a breach notice to Nimzo 98, which while registered as an LLC in the US appears to be Indian-operated, saying the company has not paid its fees and the Compliance folk haven’t been able …

Verisign said it is “pleased” that ICANN has decided it should be awarded the .web gTLD, but hinted that it might not launch this year. “We now look forward to NDC’s execution of the .web Registry Agreement and submission to ICANN of the request for assignment of the .web Registry …