traverselegal - December 1, 2013 - Internet Law
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has released that the first new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) have been given out. Before there were 22 gTLDs in use, such as .com, .org, and .net, but with the domain name expansion this should grow to be more than 1,400 when the program is complete. The goal of this new project is to encourage creativity with those creating the domain names, as well as providing new and innovative ways of reaching their audiences. The president of ICANN’s generic domains division said of the project, “It’s happening – the biggest change to the Internet since its inception. The weeks and months ahead, we will see new domain names coming online from all corners of the world, bringing people, communities and businesses together in ways we never imagined. It’s this type of innovation that will continue to drive our global society”.
These new gTLDs will be open to many languages, which will hopefully make the internet more globally inclusive for different regions and languages.
In order to protect trademark holder’s rights and that the introduction is stable, there will be a small wait period before these gTLDs are accessible to the public.
