Overview and Analysis of Draft Applicant Guidebook,
version 4

On May 31st, ICANN released the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG).

MarkMonitor has carefully analyzed this most recent version of the DAG and developed the resources necessary to easily understand the changes to the Guidebook.

Please feel free to use the materials below to submit your comments directly to ICANN. Comments on this version of the Guidebook must be submitted to ICANN no later than July 21, 2010.

ICANN is committed to moving forward with the new gTLD Program. As rights' holders your input on this version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook is desperately needed to ensure that your concerns are heard and addressed.

Module 1

The Role of Public Comments

Public comments will last for 45 days from posting of the applications.
Evaluators will perform due diligence on comments and will take information provided into consideration.
Public comments may also be relevant to one or more objection rounds.

Restrictions on Registrar Cross-Ownership Prohibit Applications from the Following:

ICANN accredited registrars or affiliates; or
Entities controlling 2% or more of an ICANN accredited registrar or affiliate; or
Entities where 2% or more of voting securities are owned by an ICANN accredited registrar or affiliate; or
Applicants engaging ICANN accredited registrars to provide any registry service.

Designation for High-Security Zones

Deemed to be entirely independent of this process.
Currently in development through a separate program.

Module 2

Evaluation Procedures

Applicant Background Checks

Additional detail of background checks to include, but not limited to, investigation of corruption and bribery, terrorism, organized crime, money laundering, corporate fraud, arms trafficking and war crimes and intellectual property violations.

String Similarity Reviews

Evaluation will now be based upon similarity to existing TLDs and Reserved Names.

Policy Requirements

Applied for strings in ASCII must be composed of 3 ore more characters.
Applied for IDN strings must be composed of 2 or more characters.

Country and Territory Names

Country or Territory names will not be approved and include both short and long forms as listed in ISO-3166-1.

Geographical Names Requiring Support include:

Capital city names; or
City names when the TLD will be used for purposes associated with the city and when the string is a city name as listed on official city documents; or
County, provinces or states.
Sample letter of support now included as Attachment to Module 2.

Code of Conduct Violations

Results of breached panelist conduct to result in re-review of affected applications by new panelists.

Module 4

String Contention

Community Priority

"Community Priority Evaluations" no longer referred to as "Comparative Evaluations".
Additional Community Criterion definitions and guidelines provided for "Community
Establishment", "Nexus", "Registration Policies" and "Community Endorsement" now available.

Module 5

Transition to Delegation

Registry Agreement

Guidebook clearly states that entry into any registry agreement by ICANN must first be approved by the ICANN Board of Directors.

Registry Operator Expectations Require:
Either Sunrise or Trademark Claims mechanisms to be in place at start-up
Implementation of URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension) and PDDRP (Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Policy)
Implementation protections for country and territory names
Continuity and transition plans to be in place
TLD files to be made available via standardized processes
Deployment of DNSSEC

Trademark Clearinghouse Overview (TC)

A centralized database of validated trademarks to support pre-launch rights protections mechanisms for all new gTLDs.
Intended to provide rights owners with a uniform and cost effective approach for the validation of trademarks for the launch of all new gTLD Sunrise Periods or Trademark Claims Services.
No common law rights with exception to those that have been court validated will be accepted for inclusion by the Trademark Clearinghouse

Uniform Rapid Suspension Overview (URS)

Intended to provide a cost-effective and expedited approach for the suspension of clearly infringing domains
Clearly infringing domains are those that are confusingly similar to those of the rights holder, in which the registrant has no legitimate right, and are being used in bad faith
Fees per claim are expected to run $300
Domains that are successfully suspended as a result of the URS procedure are only suspended for the remainder of their registration term, or for and additional year at current market registration rates
After suspension ends, domains become available for registration again
Review of URS procedure will be initiated one year after the first determination is issued

Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure Overview (PDDRP)

Provides TM holders with the right to file complaints against registries who have acted in bad faith
The intent to profit form the systematic registration of infringing domains