GTLD Briefing APSTAR Retreat Beijing 24 th August 2009

Background 23 rd Oct 2008 – First draft of GTLD Application Guidebook 9 th Jan 2009 – Updated on GTLD Application Guidebook 7 th May 2009 – Amended Guidebook for public comments 10 th June 2009 – Overarching issues Update 24 th July 2009 – GTLD Outreach in Hong Kong Summary: – Allow any GTLD, commercial or non-profit – Allow IDN in TLD (first time in history) – Application fees is US$180,000++ Expect to run up to US$250,000 per application – Will use “auction” to resolve conflicting bids

Latest Anticipated Timeline Based on the latest info, the “Application Launch” will start in Q

General Outstanding Issues Trademark Protection - IRT/URS Potential amplification of malicious conduct Geographical Names Root Zone Scaling Economic study of new GTLD demand Security and Stability impacts of an expanded numbers of GTLD

Outstanding Issues in IDN 3 Character Letter Limitation – Policy Requirements for Generic Top-Level Domains – Applied-for strings must be composed of three or more visually distinct letters or characters in the script, as appropriate. IDN CJK Variants – Currently, each Variants of the same TLD is considered a new applications. – Cost to Applicants but more importantly, that cost pass down to applicants. Applicants have to pay multiple times for the same domain name.

JET Open Letter to ICANN

Potential Applicants from Asia CNNIC (CN) ChinaGov (CN) NET.CN (CN) XinNet (CN) Net-Chinese (TW) dotAsia (HK) GMO (JP) Interlink (JP) RegistriesASP (MY) IP Mirror (SG) Affilas (US) Verisign (US) i-DNS.net (Asia/US) (Korea is complicated)

The Problem A large number of IDN gTLD from Asia Application fee is US$180,000++ (est. US$250,000) Chinese, Japanese and Korean share the same script (CJK Ideographs). There is a good chance we may conflict with each another. If two or more people applied for the same TLD, – Default action goes into an Auction which means even more money than the initial application fees – The process does not allow mediation and partnership after application is submitted

“Asia Registries Consortium” Pre-emptive TLD conflicts among members – Members will self-organize to prevent or reduce competing TLD applications Be a “voice” for TLD operators based in Asia to address our concerns – Strength in numbers Common resources and provide assistance

Proposed Model Not for Profit Open Membership Members remains independent operators To discuss – where to put the “consortium” – CDNC has offered to be the umbrella. No consensus from members

Informal Members CNNIC NET.CN Net-Chinese GMO Interlink IP Mirror RegistryASP dotAsia Zodiac Currently discussing the MOU and joint activities in ICANN Seoul