New domains coming to the Internet

Historic City News has been notified by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that the Internet is expanding drastically and that hundreds of new generic top level domains are coming to market as part of the most significant expansion of the domain name system ever.

In fact, this Saturday, January 25th, the “sunset period” for the first seven new generic top level domains, which opened in November, will close. Sunrise, a pre-registration period of at least 30 days, allows trademark owners a chance to safeguard the domain name that matches their trademark before new domain names are offered to the public.

“More than half of these new generic top level domains run with open registration policies, meaning that anyone can register a new domain name without restriction,” said John Hudson, US Project Coordinator for the Trademark Clearinghouse; the centralized database of verified trademarks appointed by ICANN and used by Deloitte to provide Clearinghouse Verification Services. “Brand owners need to react and adapt strategies to prepare for this rapidly growing generic top level domain landscape.”

After the sunset period closes Saturday the following domains will open:

.plumbing
.clothing
.singles
.guru
.ventures
.holdings
.bike

A trademark claims service is provided after the new domain names are offered to the public. This notification service, mandated by ICANN, warns both domain name registrants as well as trademark holders of possible infringements.

On Sunday, February 9, 2014, domains including .tattoo, .sexy, .enterprises, .diamonds and others will begin finding their way onto the Internet, with potentially hundreds or thousands to follow. Maybe we should register historiccity.sexy?