Brand was with .mobi from before their launch and in recently had been focussing on the GoMobi product.

With Pinky’s deep industry knowledge and experience I’d expect to see him being snapped up fairly quickly!

Related articles

• DotPro Registry Migrating To Afilias Backend (internetnews.me)
• Blacknight To Offer New goMobi Service to Domain Registrants (prweb.com)

Pinky Brand Leaves Afilas / DotMobi is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

More info here

Host Europe Acquires Mesh Digital is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

History of Fine Gael (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An article in yesterday’s Sunday Times (Irish edition) by Harry Leech covers .xxx and Irish politicians and political parties.

It’s obvious that they didn’t do anything about protecting their “brand” in XXX:

Endakenny.xxx and finegael. xxx were both registered in December 2011, as were the addresses sinnfein.xxx and fiannafail.xxx

Needless to say the domains were not registered for either the politicians or the political parties in question:

A spokesperson for Fine Gael was quick to confirm that endakenny.xxx has nothing to do with the taoiseach, instead suggesting it had been bought by a so-called cybersquatter. “We won’t be involving ourselves with anyone looking to exploit the Fine Gael brand in this fashion,” she said.

A spokesperson for Sinn Fein said that it was “the first I’ve heard” of sinnfein.xxx, later confirming that the individual who had registered the site had nothing to do with the party. Fianna Fail’s press office said that it was unaware of the identity of the individual who had registered the fiannafail.xxx domain but that “it has nothing to do with us, absolutely not.”

Of course they could easily have blocked the registrations during the sunrise periods, but didn’t.

What will they do now?

Ignore the issue or go down the route of a UDRP?

Of course the same kind of thing happened to Irish politicians and political parties with the launch of .eu back in 2006.

Related articles

• ICM Submit Applications For More Adult Extensions (internetnews.me)

Irish Politicians Screw Up With XXX is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

First off GoDaddy CEO told reporters that the company was applying for 3 domain extensions (TLDs) including .godaddy (their .brand). He wouldn’t say what the other two strings were, but it’s safe to assume that they are more generic.

The other big news is that Christine Jones, GoDaddy’s general counsel, will be leaving the company at the end of this week. (Kudos to Andrew for scooping that!).

Christine has been with GoDaddy for years and has given testimony to Congress and international bodies on all sorts of matters involving global internet policy and law down through the years. She’s not saying where she’s going or what she’s up to (yet), so it’ll be interesting to see what she gets up to. I seriously doubt that she’ll fade into obscurity!

Big News Chez GoDaddy is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

Yes to XXX (Photo credit: blacknight)

So while Rod Beckstrom may not have been saying much about the TAS outage his parody alter-ego Bob Recstrum has been having fun (at his expense)

Today, following the announcement of a date for TAS re-opening:

#Newgtlds update: I am pleased to announce a new Reveal Day. On 30 June, I will reveal what my plans are for the future #latersuckers

— Bob Recstrum (@BobRecstrum) May 9, 2012

Bob Recstrum Speaks On New TLDs is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

While most upgrades usually only impact registrars, the latest update includes an interesting new feature for registrants – registration certificates.

While this isn’t a completely novel idea (a number of other ccTLDs offer it) it’s a nice little addition for those registrants who want some extra proof of domain registration.

To get a cert a registrant simply does a look up on their .be domain name via the DNS.be site and then chooses the option for a cert at the bottom of the results page

You’ll get a PDF via email to the registrant’s email address within a few minutes

.Be Registry Offering Registrants Certificates is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

Icann Lisbon 2007 (Photo credit: blacknight)

ICANN’s latest update has set a date of May 22 for the re-opening of the application system.

What that means in terms of the “big reveal” is unclear at this juncture, though some skeptics are positing that it won’t happen until the public meeting in Prague.

I wonder if we can persuade Paddy Power to let us place bets on the reveal date

Related articles

• ICANN Receives Beyond Expected Number of New gTLD Applications (circleid.com)
• ICANN Reveals A Lot About New TLD Applications (internetnews.me)
• ICANN expects up to 2,305 new gTLD applications (domainincite.com)
• Demand Media mum on $18m new gTLDs investment (domainincite.com)

New TLD Application System To Come Back Online At End of Month? is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

Icann Lisbon 2007 (Photo credit: blacknight)

ICANN has been consistently referring to the issues with the new TLD application system as a “glitch”.

That’s a serious misnomer.

As a native English speaker I’d consider a “glitch” to be something small and inconsequential.

When the software and systems that you are using to process millions of dollars of domain applications is forced offline for several weeks the term “glitch” is just plain wrong.

I know what it’s like when stuff breaks, but seriously .. call a spade a spade.

Related articles

• ICANN Reveals A Lot About New TLD Applications (internetnews.me)
• ICANN affirms full refunds for pissed-off gTLD applicants, slient on new CEO (domainincite.com)

A “Glitch” Does Not Last This Long is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

The company that will be running the .amsterdam registry has already launched a public site where they’re accepting pre-registrations. While I’d normally question anyone offering pre-registrations at this stage a .city TLD is a lot less likely to run into issues..

SIDN Get .Amsterdam Contract is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

ICANN signage (Photo credit: blacknight)

ICANN’s latest update on the new TLD application system downtime contains a few interesting titbits of information that have all the domain bloggers speculating about how many new TLDs there will be.

According to the latest update ICANN has:

• 2091 pending new TLD applications
• 214 additional applications that haven’t been paid for yet
• Pulled in $350 million in fees

I’ve no idea what kind of banking arrangements ICANN has made for all that cash, but if it’s earning interest .. ..

So 2091 pending applications is a LOT.

Who has applied and what kind of applications they’ve made is a guessing game at this stage. Some of the applicants have been very open about what they’re doing, while others have kept off the radar completely.

If you enjoy a bit of speculation you can read some of the posts from the various blogs:

• Antony Van Couvering from Minds and Machines
• Kevin over on DomainIncite
• Andrew over on DomainNameWire
• Mike Berkens over on TheDomains

While there may not be consensus among ICANN watchers it’s pretty clear that most people expect the bulk of applications to be for “.brand”.

How this will all play out is still very much up in the air. And we still have no idea when the “big reveal” will actually happen!

Related articles

• 2100 New gTLD Applications. What Does It Mean? (circleid.com)
• ICANN expects up to 2,305 new gTLD applications (domainincite.com)
• ICANN’s $350 million windfall (domainnamewire.com)
• Should ICANN can digital archery? (domainnamewire.com)
• ICANN expects at least 1,268 new gTLD applications (domainincite.com)

ICANN Reveals A Lot About New TLD Applications is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News