ICANN New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) has worked out its proposals in relation to so-called “closed generic” domains (now called “exclusive access” gTLDs). These are domain names that are dictionary words and that registries-applicants want to use for their corporate needs, not allowing any third-party registrations. The possibility of delegation of such domains from the very beginning seemed dubious to many observers, however, not to ICANN. As a result six closed generic domains are waiting for their fate to be sealed. There are .FOOD, .HOTELS, .GROCERY, .DATA, .PHONE and .DVR (the last one is an abbreviation that is commonly used in English and means any digital device with video recording). At least one of the applicants for each of these domains is willing to use it as an exclusive access gTLD.
NGPC proposes two ways of dealing with the situation. The first one is a complete rejection to use any closed generic domains during this round. The second one is to think of clear and precise criteria to prove that exclusive usage of closed generic domains “serves a public interest goal”. It is obviously difficult to prove this is why the future of closed generics seems so vague.
