The second stage of the new generic TLDs program began but ICANN has yet to sort out the applications pending after the first stage. In fact, only one application. Late last year the corporation notified all the applicants, who fail to withdraw their unapproved applications since 2012 that they were given three months to register their withdrawal and receive reimbursement for their expenses.
That deadline has passed, and the status of the 11 applications that had been stalled for almost a decade and a half has changed in the ICANN’s official documents. Now applications for .HOTEL, .SHOP, .AFRICA, .SALON and some other domains are marked as terminated. The only exception is the application from Nameshop, India. In 2012, the company vied for the .IDN domain, obviously having not bothered to read the program rules. .IDN is the Indonesia’s ISO-code and by no means can be delegated as a new domain name. When this was explained to Nameshop representatives they attempted to take advantage of the opportunity to amend the application to correct typos, and even this opportunity was interpreted in a very peculiar way.
The company changed .IDN to .INTERNET in its application, which, naturally, was hard to deem a typo correction. Nevertheless, Nameshop refused to withdraw its application, and for 14 years now, it has been trying to attain “justice” as it understands it. It is absolutely clear that the Indian company has no chances to succeed, still ICANN has given it the last chance to receive, at least, reimbursement for its costs. According to Domain Inicite, Nameshop still has the possibility to withdraw its application voluntarily and be partially compensated for its filing costs until May 15. By the way, the application was filed under the candidates’ support program and therefore the compensation will amount to $47,000. Possibly, this is not a too large amount for the company, but it still would be unwise to lose it.
