The International Trademark Association's 130th meeting closed yesterday in Berlin. Domain names were once again a major topic, with ICANN invited to speak about new gTLDs and IDNs.
ICANN chief registrar liaison Tim Cole discussed new gTLDs and IDNs during a workshop held at the International Trademark Association's 130th meeting in Berlin.
"As a former trademark attorney and INTA member, I was very happy to come here and discuss what's going on at ICANN and in the domain name industry." On Tuesday May 20th, ICANN's chief registrar liaison Tim Cole addressed a couple of hundred people in the Berlin International Convention Center's main auditorium during a session entitle "trademarks and the Internet, hot topics".
As can be expected, the possibility of seeing new gTLDs introduced sometime next year (see box) is at the forefront of the Intellectual Property community's mind. "We focused on the dispute resolution mechanisms that are being looked at as part of this process," Cole told Domaines.Info during an interview after his INTA presentation. "The IP community has concerns about the amount of money that might have to be spent on protection in new extensions. But people here are also very enthusiastic about the new possibilities that launching additional namespaces will bring. INTA is an international organisation and people recognise that a major part of the Internet's growth is being driven by countries outside the US and that there is a very real need for IDNs and new gTLDs."
In addition, the possible launch of new gTLDs was obviously a very apt topic for this INTA meeting as .BERLIN is one of the new projects being readied as the first of a new type of extension, "city TLDs".
Even though the new gTLDs being discussed would be part of a new "request for proposals" process, the third one initiated by ICANN since it was created in 1998, some extensions okayed in the previous round have yet to be launched.
One example is .TEL, scheduled for release before the end of the year with a sunrise period planned for Q4 2008. At INTA, .TEL registry Telnic's senior VP for business development and policy revealed that final pricing for the new domain would be confirmed at ICANN's next international meeting, which will be held in Paris in June.
• New gTLD tentative implementation timeline During his INTA presentation, Tim Cole revealed ICANN's tentative implementation timeline for the introduction of new gTLDs. The first step is to complete the initial Request For Proposals (RFP) development work, culminating in the publication of a draft RFP in July this year. After a global communications campaign to raise awareness and ensure maximum participation from would-be applicants for new gTLDs, the final RFP's publication date is currently set for October 2008. That would then open the way for the new gTLD application period to open about 6 months later, in February 2009. However, Tim Cole was keen to stress that this is a tentative timeline. Current expectations are actually for the process to be delayed by a few months while ICANN resolves some of the more complex issues involved in launching new gTLDs.
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