First 60 New gTLD Applications Have Received Their Initial Evaluation Results

The first 60 new gTLD applications have been reviewed by ICANN, and even though eight are remain in review for various reasons, all other 52 applications have passed into delegation. Because all of the internationalized domain names were prioritized first, every application that has passed through the Initial Evaluation is a non-Latin script domain extension. For a list of the first 60 applicants, click here.

Why didn’t eight of the applications get final results? According to ICANN, that could be for a variety of reasons, including pending change requests, clarifying questions, or a need for missing information to be provided. Whatever the reason, ICANN promises to turn around results on these pending applications as soon as possible.

Although in these first two rounds, all applications either passed, or received a pending results notification, there are two other options for ICANN to designate an application as they determine Initial Evaluation outcomes:

• Eligible for Extended Evaluation:  While one or more of the determining qualifiers in the applicants review needed improvement or more information, ICANN has determined that the applicant may extend their evaluation period and address the errors or redirect areas of their application that need to be clarified. In this instance, the applicant may still receive a passing mark. For this result, the areas of improvement may be financial, technical, or geographical.
• Ineligible for Further Review: If an applicant receives this status as the result of their Initial Evaluation, then the application has been denied due to the fact that ICANN review panels determined the applicant either does not have the infrastructure to support registration, or the string conflicts with another. For this result, the applicant did not pass the criteria for string similarity, background screening, or DNS stability.

For those who have received their passing results, the next step and how quickly the extension becomes available for public registration depends wholly on the applicant. The applicants are now able to begin contracting as early as April 23, depending on whether or not they have no objections or contentions, and whether their systems are ready to launch.

There will be a new set of 30 applications with finalized Initial Evaluation results every week, and ICANN hopes to keep increasing this number up to 100, so that it is possible that they might move through all applications by the end of August.

Keep updated on the nTLDs you’re watching by joining our watcher service. You tell us which extensions you want info on and we’ll let you know the status of the application and when they enter sunrise, landrush, and general registration.