Theme - New gTLDs

General Motors has pulled out of the new gTLD program at a cost of $275,000.

A recent update of ICANN's application database shows that the US motor manufacturer has withdrawn its bids for dot-Cadillac and dot-Chevrolet – representing its two most famous brands – as well as dot-GMC. Two remaining applications – for dot-Buick and dot-Chevy – are expected to be confirmed as having been withdrawn within days.

Under the rules of the program, the company is entitled to reclaim 70 percent of the $185,000 application fee, representing a cost of $55,000 per application, or $275,000 overall. In addition, the company hired brand protection company CSC to shepherd its bids through.

ICANN has named 23 April as the date when the organization will formally approve the first of thousands of new Internet extensions.

Speaking in a pre-recorded interview, CEO Fadi Chehade said that the organization had made “great progress in the last few weeks” and so was confident that ICANN would be able to “recommend for delegation” the first of over 1,900 applications, just a few weeks after its upcoming meeting in Beijing.

The announcement of a specific date – even if Chehade is careful to point out that it may slip depending on factors outside his control – is a positive sign for the program which has been beset with delays since it was first conceived in 2005.

The “applicant guidebook” for the program was first published in 2008 and is currently in its ninth revision, with significant changes put forward by ICANN just this month.

Only small number of new gTLD applicants will consider rushed process

ICANN has attempted to answer concerns that new gTLD applicants may renege on public commitments with a last-minute contractual add-on.

Following a special Board meeting last weekend, the organization's COO this week outlined plans for a "public interest commitment" that would see applicants voluntarily agree to make aspects of their application binding.

ICANN subsequently published for public comment a revised version of its contract, complete with a new Specification 11. Within that specification, applicants can either list which parts of their application they wish to be considered binding - and so tied in with third-party dispute resolution complete with the risk of losing their rights to run the registry - or add additional information regarding existing commitments.

Has it pulled any of its 12 other applications?

The markers of lifestyle TV programmes including HGTV and the Food Network have pulled their application for the dot-glean top-level domain.

Lifestyle Domain Holdings, a subsidiary of Scripps Networks Interactive, is behind the bid and is the seventh of 13 withdrawn applications that have been named, indicating that the companies has received its $130,000 partial refund from ICANN.

Dot-glean is just one of 13 applications made by the company and earlier this year it had applied for four trademarks for the "glean" name. It did not give a reason for dropping the application, at a cost of $55,000. It is not known if the company is responsible for any of the other six unnamed withdrawals, although its dot-vana is similar in many respects to dot-glean and may also have been junked. Scripps Networks Interactive also recently received a government "early warning" over its dot-food application last month.

US government intervenes, raising questions about ICANN stewardship

Verisign shares have plunged 15 percent, wiping $850 million off the company's value, on the news that it will not be allowed to raise prices on dot-com domains for the next six years.

The current wholesale price for dot-coms stands at $7.85 and the company had already agreed a six-year extension on its right to exclusively sell the domains with DNS overseeing organization ICANN. That agreement mirrored one signed in 2006 that allowed Verisign to raise the price by seven percent in four of the six years the contract ran.

However the contract was subject to approval by the US Department of Commerce and it decided to remove the price-rise clause before signing. A short statement issued by the DoC quoted Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling saying that "consumer will benefit from Verisign's removal of the automatic price increase".

ICANN staff and Board has upset large parts of its own organization and again raised concerns about its suitability to manage the domain name system with a series of decisions and "forecasts" regarding its trademark new gTLD program. Following a meeting earlier this month that was announced and saw trademark owners attempt to reopen a multi-year policy process to give themselves greater protections, some were stunned when ICANN appeared to signal it was prepared to change the rules to provide additional protections. At the same time, it also announced it was planning to extend protections on all domain names for IGOs, without waiting for the formal advice it has specifically requested from its own policy body, the GNSO, and following a surprise vote not to provide some of the additional protections by that same body.

The governments of the world revealed their objections to new gTLD applicants this week and raised a few eyebrows.

A higher-than-expected 242 "early warnings" were provided covering 145 extensions in total. More than half came from a single government - Australia - which took particular exception to applications made by Donuts. Donuts has stumped up $185,000 each for 307 applications and has already faced criticism from those that highlight poor previous behavior on the part of its owners.

The largest number of objections were received by the bid for dot-africa, although thanks to a careful typo, the bid is actually for dot-dotafrica. Sixteen African countries wrote in to complain about it.

It's not yet certain what impact the early warnings will actually have on applications going forward. You can view them all online.

Called alternatively a raffle or tombola but officially titled a "prioritization draw", ICANN finally published details of the event it will host in Los Angeles on Monday 17 December to decide which gTLDs will be tackled in what order. The draw replaces the much-disliked and derided "digital archery" system ICANN has previously put in place. Those who have applied will have to purchase a ticket for $100 and then six in a room for six hours while ICANN literally pulls names from a hat. The new gTLD process has never looked more robust.