Two more generic top-level domains - .PRO and .CAT – agreed to new ICANN contracts. They are among so-called “old” domains: .PRO, addressed to professionals in their fields, was delegated in 2004; .CAT - designed for residents and natives of Catalonia – in 2005. Meanwhile, new contracts are largely based on the agreement prepared by ICANN for registries of new gTLDs. Two weeks ago domain .TRAVEL (delegated in 2005) became the first among the “old” domains to accept these new conditions.
The main difference of the new contract is that it involves the use of URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension) to resolve domain disputes instead of UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) that is used in the “old” domains. URS procedure is much simpler and allows trademark owners to block domains names that are suspected in violating intellectual property rights way faster and much less expensive.
In relation to this, domain investors are concerned that URS policy will expend to all generic domains, including .COM, which would give trademark owners almost unlimited possibilities when fighting “undesirable” domains. Observers, however, believe that this scenario is highly unlikely. At least because in the contract of Verisign (operator of .COM) with ICANN it states that the agreement will be renewed in 2018 on the terms similar to those in place at the 5 largest gTLDs that follow .COM. The second largest domain today is .NET (15 million registrations), which uses UDRP, not URS. It is hard to imagine that in three years 5 new top-level domains will bypass .NET.
