On January 12, 2012, ICANN, the authority responsible for management of the internet domain name system, launched the new, expanded, gTLD program, which we reported on here. As implementation moves forward, we want to keep you apprised of important developments.

The Basics

A top-level domain name (“TLD”) refers to the suffix that appears at the end of the domain name. To date, TLDs have been limited to a subset of 22 generic TLDs (or “gTLDs,” e.g., .com, .org and more recently .xxx) and country code TLDs and were available to be registered by only select domain name registrars.

With the launch of the gTLD program, for the first time, any party was able to apply for any new gTLD. The new gTLD program allows applicants to register four kinds of generic names as gTLDS:

- generic word TLDs (e.g., .web, .home)

- corporate TLDs (e.g., .brand)

- community TLDs (e.g., .redcross, .amnesty)

- geographic TLDs (e.g., .nyc)