Domain Name Limit in QLP Addendum Could ‘Mislead Consumers,’ Says Industry Advocate
ICANN’s Qualified Launch Program (QLP) helps to curb intellectual property disputes over domains in the midst of the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) rollout, but questions persist about the registration limit for second-level domain names by registries in the QLP, said domain stakeholders in interviews last week. The registration limit for domain names for registries could “mislead consumers,” said Steve DelBianco, NetChoice executive director. ICANN opened the public comment period for the QLP for new gTLD registries Thursday (http://bit.ly/M0NPQg), with an attached addendum for review and comment. Registry operators may register up to 100 domain names for their gTLD, said the addendum.
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The QLP delineates procedures in the event of competing domain claims between registries and trademark holders, said Michele Neylon, CEO of the Ireland-based domain registrar Blacknight Solutions. QLP is the “implementation” of an ICANN policy announced in April, which permitted registries to “retain control of 100 domain names that would otherwise be offered to the public,” said DelBianco. Initial QLP comments are due Feb. 28, replies March 15.
The QLP has given “some pause” to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, because it “advised ICANN to require that holders of ‘exclusive’ generic TLDs show they were acting in the public interest when they controlled generic domains” in the same TLD, said DelBianco. The domain name limit of 100 is “plenty” for those registries that are members of particular industries that could “hinder competitors and mislead consumers,” he said. A travel company that books hotels, for instance, could hurt its competition by “exclusive use of domains such as luxury.hotels, family.hotels, eco.hotels, riviera.hotels, etc.,” he said. Users of these “exclusively controlled” hotel domains “could be misled into thinking they were seeing a broad array of competing travel offers,” instead of the domain holder determining “the content and offers presented,” he said.
All the addendum allows is a registry to allocate some or all the 100 names to third parties, said an ICANN spokesman. “The 100 names must be registered to the registry operator.” If “any parties have concerns” about QLP’s “impact, we are seeking that feedback in the comment forum,” he said.
The QLP is designed to “resolve” the issue of registry operators launching their new TLD without ending up in conflict with a trademark holder, said Neylon. Registry operators are trying to launch new TLDs with “big fanfare and success” and “want to get a couple of anchor tenants” for the new TLD before it goes to general availability, he said. “If you really start looking at what’s registered and trademarked, you'll find that practically every single term you can think is registered already.” The QLP gives the registry the “option” for its anchor tenants to “help market the TLD, while remaining compliant with the other IP rights policies” of trademark holders, he said.
It’s good ICANN “clearly” articulated “policies by which a registry operator may allocate names to designated third parties, immediately following launch,” said Leslie Phillips, senior vice president-communications at FairWinds Partners, a domain name consultancy. “The interests of brand owners who registered marks in the Trademark Clearinghouse are now protected by the QLP language,” a move FairWinds found helpful, she said. “The potential QLP would provide a means for Registry Operators to register a limited number of names to third parties to help promote their TLDs prior to the Sunrise period, while maintaining safeguards against intellectual property infringement,” said the ICANN spokesman by email. The QLP “makes sense,” said Managing Director Michael Berkens of Right of the Dot, which consults on TLD strategy. “I can’t see who would be against it.”