Category Archives: Domain Names

Domain Names

Are you European (yet)?

With the Lisbon Treaty about to be ratified, is it time you looked at getting your name or company brand in .eu? The .eu domain was launched in 2006 and is now an established domain extension. Here in the UK there are about 300,000 .eu domains registered which means there’s still plenty of choice, unlike .co.uk and .com.

Your European Identity
Your European Identity

Other interesting statistics include that the domain has an 81% renewal rate, which indicates its established nature, and 75% of .eu domains have an active website or email.

Even if you don’t look to expand into Europe in the near future, it’s worth looking at registering your name or brand now, as the registry is still growing so choice is falling.

Domain Names

ICANN Independence Day

Today is a historic day in the evolution of the Internet. On 30 September 2009, the JPA (Joint Project Agreement) between ICANN, the Internet governing body, and the United States Government expired. Many commentators believed the US Government would not allow the agreement which maintained their ultimate control to simply lapse, but it appears in all the ways that matter that it has.

ICANN is a multi-stakeholder organisation in which anyone can have a say. 2020Media regularly attend ICANN meetings, and compared to say, Nominet, the bottom-up approach is refreshing and stimulating.

The announcement by ICANN today includes an Affirmation of Commitment which we believe is ICANN’s way of promising to ‘be good’ in the future. In it ICANN promises to do periodic reviews of their accountability and transparency – but crucially these will report to the GAC, an ICANN constituency body representing all governments, not just the US government.

Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf

Vint Cerf commented: “[The agreement] fulfils a long-standing objective of the original formation of Icann: to create an organisation that can serve the world’s interest in a robust, reliable and interoperable internet.”

Domain Names

Domain Tasting is over

Tastes Funny
Tastes Funny

New data released this month by ICANN shows a 99.7% drop in domain tasting since it changed the fees back in April 2009.

Domain tasting is the practice of registering a domain name for a few days, seeing if it can make any money through advertising, then deleting it for a full refund.

ICANN changed it’s rules so that the ICANN refund didn’t apply, and most registries changed their terms so that registrars could only return about 10% of their monthly registrations.

To give an idea of the scale of this practice, in June 2008, nearly 17.7 Million gTLD domains were tasted. Now in June 2009  just 58,000 were returned (probably due to errors in registrations)

The net result – should mean more domains are available for the general public to buy.

Image by Gaspirtz
Domain Names

Domains consultation

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

This week 2020Media attended the London ICANN consultation on new top level domain names (gTLDs) at RIBA. The event was well attended, with many people flying from all over Europe and beyond to have their say.

ICANN is seeking people’s views on the introduction of potentially hundreds of new top level domains (.eco, .city, etc) especially with regard to protecting brand names.

Many big brands have resisted the idea of new domains entirely, but having accepted they will happen, are now attempting to ‘reserve’ their names and trademarks so they can’t be registered by anyone apart from themselves.

In recent ccTLD launches, there’s been quite a high price put on domains in the so-called Sunrise period by the registries, and this is something the brands want to avoid.

On the other hand, trademarks exist in classes, they are not global (so Apple Records and Apple Computers can both have trademark on ‘Apple’, in their respective business areas). So if a new domain is launched, why should the man in the street not register apple.eco, providing they don’t start passing themselves off as an Ipod reseller.

Domain Names

New Domains – London Event

ICANN, the top level body responsible for the internet, is holding a consultation in London this July.

The consultations will facilitate on-going discussions with the Internet community regarding workable solutions to some of the outstanding, overarching issues, particularly trademark protection and malicious behavior, on the proposed new tranche of domain name extensions.

All events are free of charge and you can find out more and signup at the ICANN website