Category: Domain Name News

CIRA announced today that its CEO and President Bernard Turcotte will be leaving later this year. Bernard has played an important role in forging CIRA’s status as one of the world’s best-run country code top-level domains and has served Canada’s Internet community through CIRA since 2001. CIRA will soon be launching a nation-wide search to find the…

ICANN Starts Consultation on Protecting Registrants – ICANN is seeking to increase protection for domain registrants through a consultation on its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and accreditation process.   .COOP Registry Renews Agreement With ICANN – DotCoop, registry operator of the .coop top-level domain, has signed a ten year renewal of its agreement with ICANN.…

.TRAVEL Founder Steps Down – Ron Andruff, founder of the .travel domain and President of Triallance Corporation, the operator of the .travel domain registry, has stepped down. According to an article in Breaking Travel News, Andruff indicated that “his decision was due to a combination of conflicting ideas with Tralliance management about the future of…

VeriSign Restates Financials, Announces Resignation of CFO – VeriSign has announced a restatement of its financial statements going back to 2002 as a result of a review of the company’s historical stock option grant practices. Also announced was the resignation of Dana Evan as Chief Financial Officer. Stratton Sclavos had resigned as CEO in May.…

Nomination Committee Candidates for CIRA Board Selected – The CIRA Nomination Committee has selected candidates for the NomCom side of the split ballot for the Board Elections this September. The candidates are: Richard Anderson, Clyde Beattie, Jean Héon, Ronald Kawchuk, Jefferson Mesidor, Christophe Reverd, and Rick Sutcliffe. Each candidate has submitted a statement, and answers…

Results From The ICANN San Juan Meetings – ICANN meetings took place last week in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Here are some results: approval of the fiscal year 2008 budget, several discussions on new generic top-level domain names and on internationalized domain names, a public forum on accountability and transparency, a tutorial on domain tasting,…

ICANN Meetings This Week in San Juan – ICANN meetings are taking place in San Juan, Puerto Rico until Friday, June 29. The meeting website includes agendas, times, speakers and copies of presentations, and issues to be considered include new gTLDs, registrant protection, GNSO improvements, and IDNs. In the days just prior to the meetings,…

Utube Lawsuit Stays Alive But Some Claims Dismissed – In the lawsuit by Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment (utube.com) against YouTube, Inc. (youtube.com), the court has dismissed several of the claims including trademark infringement and trespass to chattels. The court found that the trespass claim required physical contact but that it is not possible to…

Worldwide Domain Registrations Reach 128 Million – VeriSign’s quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief reports that the total number of domain registrations worldwide has reached 128 million, a 31% increase during the previous year. The number of .com/.net domain names grew to 69 million, a 28% increase year over year and 6% quarter over quarter. CcTLD…

RegisterFly Domains Being Transferred to GoDaddy – Registrar GoDaddy.com has reached an agreement with RegisterFly, which had had its registrar accreditation terminated by ICANN, to transfer RegisterFly’s portfolio of domain names to GoDaddy.com. ICANN has welcomed the announcement. .TRAVEL Registry Gets Reprieve – SEC documents indicate that Michael Egan, president of Theglobe.com, has lent $250,000…

ICANN Reports RegisterFly Deal To Transfer Domains – ICANN reports that it “has been advised of a deal to transfer all names in RegisterFly’s management from RegisterFly to an existing accredited Registrar with a demonstrated record of customer service. This would be a quick and effective solution to many of the problems that registrants are…

ICANN Posts Proposed 2007-2008 Budget – ICANN has posted its proposed budget for 2007-2008. Expenses are budgeted to be $US 43 million, an increase of more than $13 million over the current budget year’s projected year-end total. Owner of .TRAVEL Registry Reports Financial Difficulties – Theglobe.com, which acquired .travel registry operator Tralliance in 2005, states…

ICANN Seeks Public Comment On Its Performance – ICANN is seeking community feedback about its performance. Of particular interest to ICANN are comments on transparency, accessibility, accountability, operational performance, policy development, international participation, its multi-stakeholder model, technical coordination, and dispute resolution. Comments will be received until June 5. CIRA Criticizes ICANN Performance Consultation – CIRA…

MarkMonitor Releases Brandjacking Index – MarkMonitor has released a quarterly report called the Brandjacking Index which measures the effect of online threats to brands. The study found cybersquatting posed the greatest threat, and also identified others including false association, pay-per-click fraud, domain kiting, objectionable content, unauthorized sales channels, and phishing. .MOBI Domain Registrations Surpass 500,000…

CIRA Calls For Nominations For Board Election – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) has a issued a call for individuals to be considered by the Nomination Committee for the Board of Directors election to be held this September. The last day for applications to the Nomination Committee is Monday, May 21. The 2007 election,…