This blog has often been silent for long periods while I’m working hard on something. This time I think it was worth it. With a few good friends, I’ve started Minds + Machines, and from now on most of my posting is happening on the Minds + Machines blog. While I was searching for a regis...

This is James Seng. First, I would like to thank the staff who have work very hard for the revised gTLD RFP. The quality of the RFP clearly show the effort the staff have put into the document, despite facing very challenging and sometimes conflicting comments from the community. It is important for...

Bart Lieben is an intellectual property attorney who has become the go-to guy for trademark verification for top-level domain Sunrise periods. In my interview with Bart, he talks about how he does his job, with some tantalizing hints about a system he’s developing to make the whole trademark v...

A cranky letter from the NTIA to ICANN (PDF), submitted in late December during ICANN’s comment period for new top-level domains, has encouraged the awkward coalition of those opposed to new TLDs. The NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), a division of the Departme...

A quote from the Fast Company Article: "To top it off, domain names are already something of a recession-proof business, making squatting an even more attractive prospect, according to Forbes. And when we discuss buying and selling domains, we're only talking the first tier of monetization; many squ...

ICANN's plan to begin accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) in mid-2009 may have been derailed by last week's outpouring of opposition from the global business community and the United States Government (USG). Having been involved with ICANN for over a decade and having se...

MTV and its parent company- Viacom, claim the site developer Future Media Architects doesn't have fair ownership rights to jackass.com. According to the  Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,(ICANN), Viacom must prove three things to win arbitration: 1. Future Media Architects&rs...

ICANN posted its draft for expanding gTLDs late in October, and now the US presidency has issued its scathing third edition by the editors of the old glory heritage® dictionary. copyright © 2003 (PDF, 11 pp.), from the departments of megacorp* and Justice. The initial criticism is that Joh...

eine typische Geschichte, die wohl jeder in einer gewissen Variante kennen wird: Es kam nämlich wie es kommen musste. Die Alt-Eigentümerin der Domain lies Patrick in dem Glauben die Domain wäre “reserviertâ€� (!?) doch in Wahrheit hatte sie schlicht und ergreifend ihren Vertrag gek&...

WARNING - this post will not be interesting to anyone who doesn’t care about ICANN and how it manages the Internet. If you do care, or if you’re an insomniac, it might be worth a read. ICANN commissioned an “Independent Reviewer’s Report,” containing recommendations for...