ICANNWiki May Lose Primary Funding Source

January 4, 2018

If you have ever done a Google search for a person or company in the domain name business, it is very possible you came across ICANNWiki, a website community with a ton of information about ICANN and the domain name industry. According to a tweet from the company, ICANNWiki might lose its primary funding source:

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ICANNWIKI** Please read, share, comment and support. https://t.co/b68eo8Gddx

— ICANNWiki (@ICANNWiki) January 3, 2018

Here’s an excerpt from the blog post announcing the news:

“ICANNWiki was recently informed that ICANN might choose not to renew its contract, which accounts for 60% of our annual revenue. The contract began in 2015, with an initial three-year term, which enabled us to bring on two full-time co-directors to steward the project and improve its services. ICANN has stated, ‘At this time, while it is highly unlikely that ICANN will be renewing its contract with ICANNWiki, we have not come to a final determination.’”

Losing a revenue source that accounts for 60% of the total revenue stream can be debilitating for any website. For those

Daily Poll: Should ICANN Use New gTLD Money for Marketing?

Elliot Silver

January 3, 2018

Kevin Murphy of Domain Incite wrote about the suggestions made by an ICANN working group on how ICANN should spend the $240 million the organization generated from auctions of new gTLD extensions. One idea that seems to be popular with the operators of new gTLD extensions is for ICANN to spend some of the money on marketing activities to educate the general public about the extensions.

Today’s daily poll question is Should ICANN Use New gTLD Money for Marketing? You are invited to vote in the poll below and are welcome to share additional thoughts in the comment section.

Andee Hill Hired by ICANN

August 7, 2017

Over the weekend, I saw that Andee Hill announced that she has left Donuts. Andee worked there for two years as Director of Business Development at Donuts. Prior to Donuts, Andee founded (and sold) an escrow service and got her start in the domain business at Escrow.com.

Of her time at Donuts, Andee said she is “Honored to have worked at a smart company and with smart people.” Her last day at the company was July 31.

After reading the news about her departure from Donuts, I reached out to Andee to see if she is staying in the domain name industry and ask what her plans are. Andee told me she has accepted an offer from ICANN to become its Registrar Services & Engagement Programs Director.

“I’m very excited to start the position and feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to

New ICANN Domain Transfer Policy Effective on December 1

Elliot Silver

October 6, 2016

ICANN Logo Did you know there is a new domain name transfer and registrant change policy that is being implemented by ICANN on December 1, 2016? You can read the full transfer policy on ICANN’s website.

In addition, OpenSRS published a blog post about the policy change. Here is how the company stated that these changes will impact its customers:

Any changes to first name, last name, organization or email address fields for the owner of any gTLD domain name will now start a trade process
The process involves obtaining explicit confirmation from current and new registrants before a change can be completed
After a change of registrant has been completed, previous and new registrant need to receive notifications about the change, with no option of reversing the change
After a change of registrant has been completed, the domain is by default locked for transfers to a new registrar for the following 60 days

I believe this change is going to impact many of us who regularly buy and sell domain names.

One of the most obvious ways this will impact my business is

ICANN Comments on Contract Expiration

Elliot Silver

October 1, 2016

There has been a ton of political and mainstream discussion about the expiring IANA contract between ICANN and the US government. Despite some last minute efforts to thwart the transition, the contract has officially expired. I am not into political discussion and debate, so I stayed away from writing about this topic.

I am on ICANN’s news distribution list (you should also sign up for ICANN news), and I want to share the news release ICANN sent out this morning announcing the transition of the stewardship of IANA functions. You can also read it directly on the ICANN website. Personally, I don’t think Internet users (or domain investors) will see any changes with this transition.

Here is ICANN’s email from this morning:

ICANN Seeking Volunteers for UDRP Review Working Group

Elliot Silver

March 22, 2016

ICANN sent out a news alert yesterday calling for volunteers to participate on a new working group that will be created to “Review all Rights Protections Mechanisms in all generic top-level domains.” Among other things, this working group will be tasked with potentially overhauling the UDRP and URS procedures. This could have major ramifications for domain investors and domain name portfolio operators.

A week ago, Phil Corwin from the Internet Commerce Association wrote an article on CircleID about the importance of this working group and the impact its findings and recommendations may have on domain owners and domain investors. Phil also published an informative blog post about the working group on the ICA’s website. You should read both of these articles to get a better idea of why members of the domain investment community should consider participating on this working group.

Phil also commented to me about the importance in having solid representation among domain investors within this working group:

“These reviews, first of the new gTLD RPMs, followed by the first-ever review of the UDRP, may result in important changes to the treatment of domains within trademark law and ICANN rights protection processes. And those changes, once made, will probably last for at least a decade or two without further alteration. So anyone with an interest in registrant rights and domain valuations has a stake in their outcome.”

Nat Cohen, a board member at the ICA and the founder of Telepathy, Inc. a company that has had to repeatedly defend its descriptive domain name assets in UDRP proceedings, also

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ICANNWiki May Lose Primary Funding Source

Daily Poll: Should ICANN Use New gTLD Money for Marketing?

Andee Hill Hired by ICANN

New ICANN Domain Transfer Policy Effective on December 1

ICANN Comments on Contract Expiration

ICANN Seeking Volunteers for UDRP Review Working Group

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