ICANN has published its final TLD auction schedule. When there are two or more applications for the same domain and the contention cannot be settled privately, the domain will be up for auction.
The auction schedule is not the only news. Now applicants will gain more from settling the matter privately as according to the ICANN regulations postponing or cancelling the auction requires agreement of all parties of the contention set.
Applicants will benefit more from coming to terms with each other and organizing private auctions in any case. That way, the losing side will get a payoff, while those taking part in ICANN auctions risk losing both their domain and the money spent on filing an application and the relevant fee.
Andrei Kolesnikov, CEO of Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ, gave the following comment:
“The New gTLD programme has reached its final stage. Recently ICANN said that the commission had reviewed all applications with one applicant. Today’s announcement suggests that we can see the domain landscape in its final form starting in early 2015.”
