New gTLDs Archives - Page 137 of 141

.SPORT Selects CORE As Registry Operator

They might have been among organisations to complain about aspects of ICANNâs plan to introduce new top level domains, but the International Olympic Committee is part of a group that is applying for the .sport top level domain utilising services of the CORE Internet Council of Registrars

The decision was taken as a result of a mandate taken from the members of SportAccord, which consists of 90 International Sports Federations and 15 sports organisations and with the support from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations (AIOWF). SportAccord selected CORE as their partner to provide the technical and administrative platform for the registry operation with the ultimate objective to protect Sportsâ values and the interests of the Sports Movement and stakeholders.

âWe are extremely happy to appoint CORE to apply and operate the future .sport domain nameâ says Vincent Gaillard, Director General of SportAccord, âwe were looking for a partner that fully understands and endorses the values, culture and principles of Sport, and we are convinced that with CORE, we have found exactly the right partnerâ.

Consistent with its role as the umbrella organization for Olympic and non-Olympic sports as well as organisers of sporting events, SportAccord will be the Registry Operator of the .sport top-level domain, working in consultation with all community stakeholders.

âIt is a privilege to be able to contribute to a TLD led by the Sport Community.â says Amadeu Abril i Abril, Chief Policy Adviser at CORE. âThe purpose of the CORE Association has always been to create TLDs in the public trust. The community-based focus of the .sport TLD is the best way to maximize its value for the cause of Sport while avoiding negative externalities.â

SportAccord has already started the process of setting up a Governing body for .sport so as to achieve effective community-based policy development. The Governing Council will be composed of representatives of Sport governing authorities (International Federations and IOC representatives) and Sport community representatives for athletes, sponsors, amateurs, fans and youth.

As a consequence it is intended the .sport TLD will truly be led by the Sports world and developed around the values, culture and principles of Sport.

Brands Owners Expected To Defy US-Based Trade Associations And Apply For TLDs

ICANN is to begin accepting applications for new generic Top Level Domains from tomorrow (12 January) with indications being that there will be somewhere between 1000 and 1500 applications during the three month application window.Defying attempts by largely US-based advertising and marketing organisations such as the Association of National Advertisers to stop or delay the programme, both Melbourne IT and ARI Registry Services (formerly AusRegistry International) have said they expect around two-thirds of applications to be from brand names.”Big brands from around the world have already engaged with Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services to help them apply for more than 100 new TLDs,” said Theo Hnarakis, Melbourne IT CEO and Managing Director.”Big name companies in the financial sector, plus the retail and consumer goods industries have shown the most interest in applying so far, and roughly a quarter of the companies we are assisting are members of the Fortune Global 500. Applicants working with Melbourne IT also include members of the U.S. Association of National Advertisers. We expect more brands to follow now the application window has opened and the program’s final application deadline of April 12 looms nearer,” Hnarakis said.Entrepreneurs seeking to profit from generic terms like .shop or .hotel are expected to make up around 30 per cent of applications while the remaining ten per cent will come from governments and other groups wanting to represent their city or region online with a geographic TLD like .sydney, .paris or .tokyo.”Analysis of more than 400 clients we’ve engaged with globally over the past year shows technology and finance companies in Asia Pacific and the US lead the pack,” said Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services.Strongest interest has come from businesses in the Asia Pacific region (52%), followed by the United States (29%), Europe (10%), Middle East (7%) and Africa (2%).”The first round of new domains will be dominated by technology brands (20%), as the IT industry recognises the huge opportunity to innovate. This will be closely followed by banks and other financial service providers (11%) who are jumping at the opportunity for the increased online security and trust that comes with a .brand domain,” Kinderis said.Demand for new TLDs is likely to driven in part due to the difficulty in obtaining desirable domain names for new businesses and brands.”It takes about an average of 50 attempts until you actually secure a domain name that might exist because so many of them have already been registered,” Hnarakis told Sky News.”Now’s the perfect time for brands to consider a new Top-Level Domain as part of their long-term digital marketing strategy,” said Kinderis.Speculating on the results, Kinderis said the attractive sales and marketing benefits of new TLDs has likely appealed to the IT, finance and retail industries as a way to differentiate themselves -especially important in light of the economic downturn.”A .brand new Top-Level Domain will deliver improved trust, leadership, customer engagement and message recall by providing a direct connection between the customer and the brand experience online. The rapid growth of e-commerce and online retail also complements the move to a .brand domain name. For example, in the near future we may see short, relevant and memorable domain names such as iphone.apple, creditcards, .hsbc and shoes.nike.”However, both Kinderis and Hnarakis warn that potential applicants need to act quickly if they want to reap these benefits as it is unlikely there will be another round of applications for at least two or three years.

ICANN Community to Meet and Greet in Washington, D.C., January 10

As a member of the ICANN community, you are invited to attend an informal “meet and greet” with ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom in Washington, D.C. Mr. Beckstrom will be in town as part of ICANN’s ongoing efforts to promote awareness of the launch of the January 12 open application process for new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

We hope you can join us to connect with colleagues across the Internet community and discuss the next exciting evolution of the internet.

WHAT: Meet and Greet with ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom
WHEN: Tuesday, January 10, 2012
6:00 â 8:00 p.m.
WHERE: The Atrium Room, Old Ebbitt Grill (cash bar)
675 15th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20005
www.ebbitt.com

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-09jan12-en.htm

Join ICANN for a Discussion on the Next Big .thing New Top-Level Domains and the Expanding Global Internet

About This Event

On January 12th, ICANN will open a process that could trigger a dramatic expansion of the Internet and launch a new era of online innovation.

We are familiar with .com, .org, .net, among the roughly two dozen generic top-level domains currently occupying the Internet’s addressing system. Hundreds, possibly thousands of new gTLDs, could be moving in within a year

About This Event

On January 12th, ICANN will open a process that could trigger a dramatic expansion of the Internet and launch a new era of online innovation.

The program is not without risks and not for everyone. Understanding the marketing opportunities, the application process, and the program’s built-in trademark protections is important even if a new gTLD is not for you.

Join ICANN for an informational panel discussion that will focus on:

The post-application launch timeline and process
Potential marketing opportunities
Trademark Protections & Dispute Resolution

The panelist also will take questions from the audience.

Panel Discussion Details

Moderator: Naseem Javed, ABC Namebank

Panelists:

Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO, ICANN
Roland LaPlante, Senior VP and CMO, Affilias
Kristina Rosette, Special Counsel, Covington & Burling

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 11

Time: 9 am â 10:30am

Place: Newseum
Knight Conference Center, Rms 705/706
555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20001

RSVP: andrew.robertson@edelman.com

Phone Number: 888/NEWSEUM (888/639-7386)

Directions:Â http://www.newseum.org/plan-your-visit/directions/index.html

About ICANN

To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination, we wouldn’t have one global Internet.

ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers.

ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-09jan12-en.htm

Sedari and NCC launch programme to assist new registry operators

[news release] NCC Group, the worldâs largest software and data escrow company, and Sedari, a consulting and technology company focusing on top-level domains, today announce a programme to assist prospective Registry Operators with the application and management of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Under the terms of this agreement, NCC Group will refer prospective registry operators to Sedari for consulting, and Sedari will refer prospective operators to NCC for data escrow and IT assurance services

As part of ICANNâs new domain name process, applicants must demonstrate how they will satisfy many different accreditation criteria. One critical requirement is to establish daily transfers of domain registration data to a reputable data escrow agent such as NCC Group. Data escrow is one of the five critical functions necessary to ensure continuity of operation in the event of a physical, technical, or business failure.

Liz Williams, CEO at Sedari said, âICANNâs data escrow requirement means that prospective registries have to find a provider with quality and reliability. We were therefore delighted to partner with NCC Group, as they presented a good combination of operational flexibility, technical expertise, and an easy to understand fee schedule. What we really liked was that their professional and pragmatic approach mirrors ours.â

Tom Scopazzi, registry services manager at NCC Group, added, âSedari is a great source of new clients for us. In a short time Sedari has shown themselves to be fleet of foot in establishing a global client base. Their current client list encompasses blue-chip corporates, city names and enticing generic names.â

About the ICANN new domain name process
Since 1998, ICANN has helped to control and manage the Internetâs naming system. A part of ICANNâs mission is to foster innovation, and this led to the expansion of the original seven TLD registries to the 22 that are currently available. Most recently, ICANN has announced a new unlimited round starting 12 January 2012. This innovative programme is expecting to lead to hundreds of new registries.

About Sedari
Sedari is a consulting and technology company focusing on TLD operations for applicants who want to run their own registry. Sedari guides new TLD applicants through the entire continuum of ICANNâs application process and, most importantly, provides a robust fully outsourced Registry Services Management Platform to help string owners run their top-level domains over the long term.

About NCC GROUP
NCC Group provides 45,000 organizations worldwide with IT assurance through escrow, verification, security & software testing, audit and website performance solutions. NCC Group is the only data escrow provider able to draw on market-leading technical expertise and ensure that Registry Data Escrow is stored under the highest levels of security at all times. Through these services NCC Group gives customers the confidence that their business critical information, systems, networks, websites & software are protected, secure, compliant and effective. The group has major operations in Europe and North America.

ICANN All Set For New gTLD Launch On 12 January

Following a meeting of the ICANN executive team and New gTLD Program Director Michael Salazar on 3 January to review the readiness of the launch of its new generic Top Level Domain programme, it was determined that the organisation was ready to proceed as planned to open the application window on 12 January as planned.Writing on the ICANN blog, Rod Beckstrom, CEO and president, said the executive team and Salazar “carefully reviewed every critical aspect” and each executive “indicated approval to proceed” while noting “the ongoing presence of risks that were identified and highlighted to the Board and community in June.”On Thursday 5 January there was an information call with the Board of Directors where Beckstrom informed the Board that ICANN was “prepared to move forward and to open the program as planned.”Beckstrom also noted that “in the package of materials, available at www.icann.org/en/minutes, you can see the items that have been completed, as well as target dates for open items that require final resolution. These include support for needy applicants and a discussion of the timing of the next application round. The issues should be settled before the application window closes on 12 April but their resolution is not essential before the window opens on 12 January.”

NTIA Asks ICANN, Nicely, To Consider Poor, Beleaguered Trademark Holders

Various arms of the US government have been asking ICANN to reconsider and even delay the introduction of new generic Top Level Domains, however the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been reticent to criticise the organisation and has generally offered ICANN support. Until now.While not asking ICANN to stop the introduction of new gTLDs, the NTIA’s Lawrence Strickling has written to ICANN (here and here) suggesting that as they move forward with the programme’s introduction, he urges the organisation “to consider implementing measures: (i) to minimise the perceived need for defensive registrations; (ii) to implement promptly ICANN’s existing commitments for law enforcement and consumer protection; and (iii) to ensure better education of stakeholders.”The Strickling letter seems to be saying to ICANN that while we support the introduction of new gTLDs, to stop some US marketing and advertising organisations, albeit often with a global membership, complaining please publicly at least take into account their concerns.The NTIA has obviously been receiving the same barrage of complaints that several US government departments, politicians and even ICANN has been receiving mainly relating to trademark issues from the very same organisations that virtually ignored six years of ICANN’s consultation.Expanding on the points in the letter, the NTIA says that following “recent discussions with stakeholders, it has become clear that many organisations, particularly trademark owners, believe they need to file defensive applications at the top level.” The NTIA suggests “it appears that this possibility might not have been fully appreciated during the multistakeholder process on the belief that the cost and difficulty of operating a top-level registry would constrain companies from filing defensive registrations.”The NTIA also suggests ICANN should consider “whether there is a need to phase in the introduction of new gTLDS” once ICANN has been able to assess the total number of applications.Their third point notes that “it has become apparent that some stakeholders in the United States are not clear about the new gTLD programme” and Strickling urges ICANN “to engage immediately and directly with these and other stakeholders to better educate them on the purpose and scope of the program as well as the mechanisms available to address their concerns.”One could possibly read this to say the dunces that have failed to be engaged in the development process for new gTLDs despite ICANN’s multistakeholder approach need to have their hands held and explained the process. Or in the case of the Association of National Advertisers, who submitted comments around 1998 during ICANN’s extensive consultation, conveniently forgot about the whole thing for three years until after the programme was approved, some help with their amnesia.These complaints have been pursued by the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, who unlike of the several organisations that have recently started voicing their concerns, have been involved in the process for some years.CADNA has strong reservations about the introduction of new gTLDs, the organisation wants to work with ICANN to address the issues they see.”CADNA looks forward to working constructively with ICANN, the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Congress to make the policy better,” said Josh Bourne, President of CADNA. “With ICANN set on moving forward with the New gTLD Programme in less than two weeks, there are certain clear, straightforward changes that could be made to the policy that will improve it for businesses and the Internet community at large.”CADNA has a number of requests for ICANN including announcing when the next round of applications for new gTLDs will be, a lessening of the burden on trademark owners and improving consumer protection, “consider adopting a pricing structure where a single applicant applying for multiple gTLDs pays a reduced rate for the subsequent gTLD applications” and allowing non-profits wanting to apply for their gTLDs to participate in the Applicant Support Programme.CADNA also says The US Congress should take much-needed action to improve the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and for the NTIA, that if ICANN is awarded the new IANA contract following its expiration in March 2012, its structure and policy development process should also be subject to an audit.

Full Steam Ahead For New gTLDS

ICANN has no intention to delay or limit its rollout of the programme to introduce new generic Top Level Domains, the ICANN Chair Steve Crocker told .NXT recently.

ICANN has no intention to delay or limit its rollout of the programme to introduce new generic Top Level Domains, the ICANN Chair Steve Crocker told .NXT recently.ICANN is due to begin taking applications on 12 January for a three month period and has been under a sustained but belated attack from a consortium of marketers and advertisers, largely US-based, along with a number of US politicians, all echoing the same complaints mostly revolving around trademark and brand protection issues.According to the .NXT report, Crocker admitted ICANN’s board will hold a special meeting in the “first week of January and that the meeting’s focus will be the launch of the new gTLD programme the following week. But that meeting will not consider either a delay or a limited rollout, he stated.”Support to continue the plan to begin accepting TLD applications also came from regular ICANN critic Milton Mueller who wrote on the Internet Governance blog that “this long overdue implementation is the result of an open process that began in 2006. It would, in fact, be more realistic to say that the decision has been in the works 15 years; i.e., since early 1997. That is when demand for new top-level domain names, and the need for other policy decisions regarding the coordination of the domain name system, made it clear that a new institutional framework had to be created.”Mueller believes the “result has been far from perfect, but human institutions never are.” He continues “Over the past 15 years, every stakeholder with a serious interest in the issue of top level domains has had multiple opportunities to make their voice heard and to shape the policy. The resulting new gTLD policy reflects that diversity and complexity. From our point of view, it is too regulatory, too costly, and makes too many concessions to content regulators and trademark holders. But delay is only going to make it worse. Stopping now disrupts the compromises that came out of the process which enabled movement forward after a long period of stagnation and artificial scarcity.”Commenting on those who have belatedly come to the party demanding the new TLD programme be stopped or delayed, Mueller writes “Now there is a cynical, illegitimate last-second push by a few corporate interests in the United States to derail that process. The arguments put forward by these interests are not new; they are the same anti-new TLD arguments that have been made since 1997, and the concerns expressed are all addressed in one way or another by the policies ICANN has developed. What is new is that U.S. corporate trademark interests are openly admitting that their participation in the ICANN process has been in bad faith all along. Despite the multiple concessions and numerous re-dos that these interests managed to extract over the past 6 years, they are now demanding that everything grind to a halt because they didn’t get exactly what they demanded, as if no other interests and concerns mattered and no other stakeholders exist. What they wanted, in fact, was simply to freeze the status quo of 1996 into place forever, so that there would be no new competition, no new entrepreneurial opportunities, no linguistic diversification, nothing that would have the potential to cause them any problems.””That group’s demands must be rebuffed, unambiguously and finally. ICANN must start implementing the new TLD program on January 12 as scheduled. It must keep its promise to those who participated in its processes in good faith.”Mueller credits the US Commerce Department for not caving “in to the cynical corporate obstructionism.””If ICANN blinks, if it deviates from or delays its agreed and hard-fought policy in the slightest way, the coup d’etat succeeds. Everyone in the world then concludes that a few corporate interests in the United States hold veto power over the policies of the Internet’s domain name system. Imagine the centrifugal forces that are unleashed as a result. Imagine the impact in Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and even the EU, when they are told in no uncertain terms that ICANN’s policy making is hostage to the whims of a few well-placed, narrowly focused U.S. business interests; that they can invest thousands of person-hours and resources to working in that framework only to see the rug pulled out from under them by a campaign by the ANA and an editorial by the New York Times. The entire institutional infrastructure we have spent 15 years trying to build will be drained of its life.”

New York Times Joins Washington Post Urging For Delay in New TLDs

The New York Times has joined the Washington Post in urging ICANN to rethink and delay its introduction of new Top Level Domains (TLDs) saying “a pilot program to work out problems before expanding the system” would be a better option, just as the three month application period is scheduled to open in a little over two weeks. The two editorials raised similar points.

The New York Times says “a plethora of new suffixes is just as likely to cause confusion for consumers and enable malefactors to use the new arenas for deception. Icann expects 500 to 1,000 applications in next year’s 90-day application window. Before it approves any of them, it needs to slow down and put in place better safeguards against consumer fraud.”

Raising concerns of cybersquatting, the Times says the “Web is full of sites that masquerade as legitimate companies to sell pirated goods or steal consumers’ financial information. Fraudsters avoid detection by registering their sites using proxy services and false identities. The administrators of the online address system — Icann, the registries that operate suffixes like VeriSign, and agents like GoDaddy that sell Internet addresses to the public — are doing a terrible job curbing fraud.”

The Times is also concerned that despite efforts by ICANN to combat fraud, “companies will still have to spend a lot on defense, registering domains to avoid squatting on their brands and keeping an eye out for potentially infringing Web sites across hundreds of new suffixes. And Icann’s current inability to deal with abusive domain name registrations undermines confidence in its ability to address the risks of this vast expansion.”

The Washington Post taking a similar line says “ICANN reports to no one — a decision made when the group was created during the Clinton administration to protect Internet independence. The group has made some adjustments in response to concerns, including creation of a trademark clearinghouse and a ‘rapid response’ process to allow legitimate rights holders to quickly knock out imposters. Officials have said that some nonprofits may be permitted to pay lower fees.”

The Times concludes saying the Federal Trade Commission “is rightly urging Icann to require that registries and registrars be able to verify the identity of owners of all domains that have a commercial purpose, and to impose meaningful penalties for those who break the rules. There is no pressing need to create hundreds of new suffixes next year. It would be far better for Icann to start with a pilot program to work out problems before expanding the system.”

The Washington Post concludes its editorial saying “ICANN should not approve new names until enforcement and protection issues are resolved. Even then, it should approve at most a few, to allow the marketplace to absorb and weigh the changes. ICANN would be wise to move slowly; its legitimacy and Internet efficacy are at stake.”

ICANN: Continued Operations Instrument Guidelines Available for New gTLD Applicants

As part of the new gTLD program, all new gTLD applicants are required to provide a cost estimate for funding critical registry functions on an annual basis in case of registry failure

As part of the new gTLD program, all new gTLD applicants are required to provide a cost estimate for funding critical registry functions on an annual basis in case of registry failure.

Several community members and prospective applicants asked ICANN for further guidelines regarding the calculation of these estimated costs. After analyzing the costs provided from several potential providers who responded to the recent EBERO-RFI (Emergency Back End Registry Operator – Request for Information) (see: www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-14sep11-en.htm), ICANN is providing the cost guidance in the table below.

The numbers provided are based on data gleaned from the proposals received, and are for guidance only. None of the costs in the table are identical to the estimates provided by the potential providers. All applicants are expected to complete calculations according to their particular circumstances, and to provide rationale for their cost estimates commensurate with the technical, operational, and financial approach described in the application.

Also note that these are costs only for providing the five critical registry functions identified in this process. These cost guidelines are not representative of the costs needed for running all of the services associated with operating a gTLD.

Applicants should ensure that the financial instrument will cover the costs for the five critical registry functions for a period of three years using the applicantâs projections of domain registrations under management.

Continued Operations Instrument guidance:

Projected Number of Domains	Estimated 3 Year COI (USD)
10,000	$18,000
25,000	$40,000
50,000	$80,000
100,000	$140,000
250,000	$250,000
>250,000	$300,000

Note: The minimum COI for any new gTLD should be US $18,000. The Maximum COI for any new gTLD need not be more than US $300,000.

Bank rating guidance

The financial instrument must be issued/held by a financial institution rated âAâ or above (or the equivalent) by any of the following rating agencies: A.M. Best, Dominion Bond Rating Service, Egan-Jones, Fitch Ratings, Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Moodyâs, Morningstar, Standard & Poors, and Japan Credit Rating Agency.

If applicant cannot access an âAâ rated financial institution, but a branch or subsidiary exists in the applicantâs local jurisdiction then applicant may use any local institution with a similar or higher rating.

As a last resort applicants may use the highest-rated financial institution in their national jurisdiction, if accepted by ICANN.

Note: For any financial instruments that contemplate ICANN being a party, upon the written request of the applicant, ICANN may (but is not obligated to) execute such agreement prior to submission of the applicant’s application if the agreement is on terms acceptable to ICANN. ICANN encourages applicant to deliver a written copy of any such agreement (only if it requires ICANN’s signature) to ICANN as soon as possible to facilitate ICANN’s review. If the financial instrument requires ICANN’s signature, then the applicant will only receive 3 points for question 50 (for the instrument being “secured and in place”) if ICANN executes the agreement prior to submission of the application. ICANN will determine, in its sole discretion, whether to execute and become a party to a financial instrument.

Why is the Continued Operations Instrument important?

As registrant protection is critical, new gTLD applications are required to provide evidence that the critical registry functions will continue to be performed even if the registry operator fails. The critical functions of a registry which must be supported even if an applicantâs business and/or funding fails are: (1) DNS resolution for registered domain names; (2) operation of the Shared Registration System; (3) provision of Whois service; (4) registry data escrow deposits; and (5) maintenance of a properly signed zone in accordance with DNSSEC requirements. This provides an opportunity for existing registrants in the TLD to maintain existing services dependent on registered domain names, and creates the ability for these registrants to plan for an extended transition where necessary.

ICANNâs core values and bylaws states that preserving and enhancing the operational stability, reliability, security, and global interoperability of the Internet should guide ICANNâs decisions and actions. The Continued Operations Instrument requirements are in pursuit of this principle and as a result of the development of ICANNâs Registry Continuity Framework.

Where can I find more information?

The current model proposed by ICANN is outlined in the Applicant Guidebook newgtlds.icann.org/applicants/agb), in particular please refer to question 50 in the Evaluation Questions and Criteria set forth in Module 2, and Specification 8 of the Registry Agreement.

In April 2009, ICANN published the ICANN gTLD Registry Continuity Plan â www.icann.org/en/registries/continuity/. This document depicts a gTLD Registry Continuity Framework developed in collaboration with experienced gTLD, ccTLD registries and members of the technical community.

In May 2010 ICANN published a New Top-Level Domain Explanatory Memorandum “gTLD Registry Transition Processes Model” (RyTP) – www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/registry-transition-processes-clean-30may11-en.pdf [PDF, 747 KB]. This document further elaborates on the concept of critical functions required for maintaining Top-Level Domain services and discusses the types of transitions between one Registry Operator and another.

Links to Relevant Information:

New gTLD Program: www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm
gTLD Registry Continuity Document Archive: www.icann.org/en/registries/continuity/archive-en.htm