Clear paths for Aussie gTLD applications

By Juha Saarinen on Aug 20, 2012 7:00 AM
Filed under Strategy

ICANN urged to reject CommBank, Telstra applications.

A majority of Australian applications to own and operate new generic top-level domains like .afl, .iinet and .sydney have so far gone unopposed.

Domain name regulator ICANN in June revealed details of some 1930 applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to join an existing 22 like .com, .net and .org.

It named 32 Australian organisations that sought to register a total of 40 domains, and welcomed public comments on the applications until September 26.

Although a range of proposed gTLDs -- including .porn, .bible and .wine -- have been opposed by groups like the Saudi Arabian government, Australian applications appear to have gone largely unopposed so far.

ICANN has yet to publish any negative feedback on Australian universities' applications to register .latrobe, .monash, .bond, .courses and .study.

Likewise, the .sydney and .melbourne domains as applied for by the NSW and Victoria governments have so far not received any objections.

Most corporations including Australia Post, iiNet, SBS, Tabcorp, Woodside Petroleum, AFL and ANZ have faced no objections to date.

But the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has received three objections over its acronym, .cba, which was also used by the Argentinean province of Cordoba.

In a letter to ICANN, Carlos Dionisio Aguirre of Ageia Densi wrote that the string was “the recognised acronym of [the] Province of Cordoba in Argentina, and its capital city with more than 500 years ancient [sic]".

Unaffiliated Max Stephopolos objected to Telstra's application .yellowpages, arguing that the telco was “using a monopolistic manoeuvre to dominate business listings worldwide and possibly enforce yellowpages as a global trademark overriding those held in other countries besides Australia".

And the European Brands Association argued that BestTLD’s .best was too similar to existing brand names.

The association argued that new registries should develop a blocking list of brand names that should not be registered “absent evidence of good faith”, to avoid consumer confusion.

ICANN charged applicants US$185,000 ($A176,000) under the new gTLD regime, with a further US$25,000 (A$23,800) annual fee on top.

Domains without comments or objections