ICANN Proposal to Release New Country and Territory Domains

within the .HONDA, .AXA, .EPSON, .HSBC, .XYZ and .COLLEGE TLDs

[engine]

ICANN has started a public comment over the release of new country and territory domains within the .HONDA, .AXA, .EPSON, .HSBC, .XYZ and .COLLEGE TLDs

Currently, .HONDA, .AXA, .EPSON, .HSBC, .XYZ and .COLLEGE Registry Agreements require country and territory names contained in specific internationally recognized lists to be withheld from registration or allocated to the registry operator at all levels.

Following ICANN's preliminary determination that the proposals do not raise significant competition, security or stability issues, it was further determined that the change would require a material change to the respective Registry Agreements and that an amendment is needed in order to effect the change.

The proposed amendments, which are being posted for comment, would allow the registration of country and territory names at all levels in .HONDA, .AXA, .EPSON, .HSBC, .XYZ and .COLLEGE TLDs. It should be noted that as of 18 December 2014, Specification 13 is granted for .HONDA, as of 30 October 2014, Specification 13 is granted for .AXA, as of 11 December 2014, Specification 13 is granted for .EPSON, and as of 24 October 2014, Specification 13 is granted for .HSBC, whereas Registry Agreements for .XYZ and .COLLEGE do not include Specification 13 provisions in place.

[icann.org...]

I can't help but think that this, along with many others, is only going to confuse consumers even further.

[jmccormac]

The brand gTLDs are largely irrelevant for the domain buying public. The .XYZ gTLD is very much a bubble TLD thanks to the zone stuffing activity in 2014. The .COLLEGE has to compete with local ccTLD versions and .EDU.

Regards...jmcc

[engine]

Thanks, jmc, but isn't this just going to confuse consumers even more?

[jmccormac]

It may work out for the brand gTLDs as they can build their brand gTLD and gradually shift their other names over (redirects etc). But for the consumer gTLDs, it isn't so much about confusing consumers as much as the consumers may ignore them. The .XYZ gTLD really needs something to keep its momentum going and it is supposed to be relying on Chinese registrations to fill the gap from dropping robot registrations (opt-out free zone stuffing robot registrations). But if it is going to target country level markets, then it is a whole different world to just targeting a single large market like the US. Most of the legacy (other than .COM) gTLDs have traditionally found it hard to gain market share in the country markets and the domain markets in these countries tend to be 80% .ccTLD/.COM. That's a brick wall for a generic like .XYZ gTLD. The more focused gTLDs may have a chance but they are not going to be ccTLD or COM killers in those markets. Some countries like the UK even have their own academic subdomains (.ac.uk) and most colleges and universities have their own brand ccTLDs. There has been some brand protection in other academic new gTLDs but I don't think that there's been any transition to a new gTLD.

The new gTLDs that may do well are following ccTLD dynamics at the moment and this is confusing most of the domainer bloggers because they generally only have experience in .COM TLD and see everything through a dotCOMmunist filter.

Regards...jmcc

[bill]

Why are they bothering .BRAND TLDs with this? Unless the brands are selling their gTLDs to the general public this won't mean a thing to consumers. Or are they just trying to impose the standardization of ISO 3166-1 country codes in all .BRAND keyword domains?

Does this mean .BRAND TLDs would have to do something like: fr.honda instead of allowing them to use france.honda if they preferred?

Looking through the ICANN site I see they have opened up comments on other .BRAND TLDs several months ago.
<added>
All the comments I have read of .BRAND respondents appear to be in favor of releasing geo-targeted 2nd level domains within their TLDs.

[piatkow]

I can see car brands being used as dealername.brand but that's about all.

[bill]

I can see car brands being used as dealername.brand but that's about all.

Oh, there's a lot more than that... (a few off the top of my head)
model.brand
model.us.brand
warranty.ri.us.brand
partnumber.model.brand
service.tokyo.jp.brand
rental.service.asia.brand
the list could go on and on...

A keyword.brand domain will force a rethinking of how domains are used in an organization. If a manufacturer secures their keyword.brand domain it's pretty certain that nobody will be spoofing that domain. They can then use that domain, which they've paid quite handsomely for, to make a hierarchy of their infrastructure, sales, distribution, procurement, customer service, after-market, OEM supply, etc. There are infinite possibilities for naming once you own the .brand, so this is ICANN trying to impose some order on the chaos they've let loose.