Region: International

ICANN has released its proposed action plan for dealing with geographic '.info' domains. It calls for the continued freezing of unregistered geographic names and the establishment of a discussion group to deal with the future status of 327 already-registered domains.

07 November 2001

ICANN has concluded its contractual negotiations with the Museum Domain Management Association, the '.museum' registrar. By signing off on the contract, ICANN has cleared the way for '.museum' to be included alongside '.com', '.net' and '.org' as a generic top-level domain in the global domain name system.

06 November 2001

The recent case of <i>Rogers Cable Inc v Arran Lal</i> is an example of the few domain name disputes settled under the UDRP that are decided in the respondent's favour - highlighting that the UDRP produces fair decisions when both parties vigorously contest their right to own a domain name.

02 November 2001

As there is no formal UDRP appeals process, second arbitrations over the same domain name are extremely rare. The recent case of <i>Furrytials Ltd v Mitchell</i> lays out the requirements for an arbitration rehearing and demonstrates the difficulty of convincing a second panel to reconsider arguments.

26 October 2001

ICANN has ordered Afilias, the company that operates the '.info' domain registry, to cancel sunrise domain registrations that contain country names and has prohibited the registration of such names for the next six months.

22 October 2001

The World Intellectual Property Organization has completed its second study of domain name disputes, which could lead to new international norms for the treatment of non-trademarked identifiers, such as geographical and personal names.

18 October 2001

ICANN's At-Large Study Committee has recommended that the organization significantly alter the role of its at-large membership. The proposed changes would affect the requirements to be met for at-large membership and the advisory powers of the at-large constituency.

17 October 2001

Afilias opened the '.info' domain up for real-time registration on October 1 and promptly ran into major technical problems. As a result, registrants may not be able to secure desired names as quickly and easily as the registry operator had promised.

15 October 2001

ICANN has completed final negotiations with the Global Name Registry to implement the '.name' domain. This new top-level name has the potential to become the global standard for individual identity on the Internet and is expected to have important implications for corporations when fighting cybersquatters.

11 September 2001

The start-up company New.net has revealed that it intends to offer 20new top-level domains on a first come, first served basis including '.law'.

05 June 2001