Monday, March 19, 2018

Coming soon: the .ICU Sunrise Period

Domain names ending in ".icu" (instead of ".com") are coming to the market. The Sunrise Period was just announced and here is what the new gTLD application submitted to the ICANN says. According to the Applicant, the purpose of the TLD is explained below:
  1. Reflect and operate a distinctive that is aimed to identify the Applicant’s services (“ICU”)at the top level of the DNS’ hierarchy;
  2. Provide customers and other stakeholders of the One.com Group, including, subsidiaries, and their respective suppliers, sponsorships, and their respective directors, officers, employees, with a recognizable and trusted identifier on the Internet;
  3. Provide such stakeholders with a secure and safe Internet environment that is mainly under the control of the Applicant, the One.com Group and its subcontractors;
  4. Provide selected stakeholders in ‘ICU’ brands with the opportunity to create a secure and safe Internet environment that is to a large extent under control of the Applicant and⁄or such stakeholders.

Looks like a .BRAND new gTLD
Question 18/a from the application submitted to the ICANN generally reflects the purpose of the new gTLD and in this case, it clearly looks like the application was submitted for an internal purpose to the brand but the Sunrise Period is dated 24 April 2018 to 24 May 2018 with a Trademark Claims Period dated 29 May 2018 to 30 August 2018 with a Qualified Launch Program (QLP) dated 24 April 2018 to 17 May 2018 so unless I am wrong, .ICU domains should be made available for sale.

The registry website is available here and this is the ICANN announcement.

.BRAND new gTLD Reports are updated once a month: CLICK HERE !