IDN has a lot of meanings and one of them is "Internationalized Domain Names". It is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for the country of Indonesia too.
The "AGB"
For anybody who went through the process of applying to a new gTLD in the first rounfd of the ICANN new gTLD program, page 67 of the new gTLD applicant guidebook (AGB) says:
"2.2.1.4.1 Treatment of Country or Territory Names: applications for strings that are country or territory names will not be approved, as they are not available under the New gTLD Program in this application round. A string shall be considered to be a country or territory name if: it is an alpha-3 code listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard".
So, someone paid $185,000 + all extra costs to apply for the
.IDN new gTLD. The same happened for the
.AND new gTLD and a few others I think.
Just for the note, the .IDN applications says:
"The purpose of the proposed gTLD is to offer a bridge for the Internationalized Domain Name Registrant to connect to users beyond their own language communities. This gTLD would be of help in furthering the Internet Communityʹs efforts to preserve the Internet as a unified, Global space. The proposed gTLD .IDN supports multiple cultural, linguistic and ethnic communities across the world by helping communities connect to the rest of the world across the barrier of language".
.IDN or .INTERNET ?
In a letter sent to ICANN in
March 05, 2013, the applicant reported his mistake and offered to change it to
.INTERNET. Probably a lot happened since 2013 but
an answer to the applicant was published by the ICANN on the
24 April 2017 in regard to this change request. It says two things:
- "We note your commitment";
- "We encourage you to participate in the Policy Development Process".
After 4 years of procedure, there's still no answer.
What to think about all this?
Applying for a new domain name extension cost a lot of money and if the entry fee should be lowered in future rounds of the ICANN new gTLD program (not that nobody can tell about this today), it will still cost a lot so:
- Do not apply for a new gTLD if you have not read the applicant guidebook: this should be your bible when it has been updated and finalized for the next round (s);
- Do not apply for a new gTLD "on your own" because you will forget something: in round one, I personally faced a geek who confirmed his boss that he would take care of the back-end registry process in his office to lower the costs. Talk to a pro with knowledge about new gTLDs.
- Don't make a mistake with your application because it can then takes YEARS to be solved.
- And again (even if this has nothing to do with this post) don't talk to backend registry providers about your project because if they don't sign you as their client, chance are high that there could be another applicant for your extension: talk to one new gTLD specialist, not all of them.
