ICANN has fought off an appeal by .webs gTLD applicant Vistaprint, in a case that considered the coexistence of
singular and plural gTLDs.
While ICANN definitively won the Independent Review Process case, the IRP panel nevertheless invited its board
of directors to consider whether Vistaprint should be given a chance to appeal a decision that ruled .webs too
similar to .web.Vistaprint runs a web site building service called Webs.com. It filed two applications for .webs —
one “community” flavored, one vanilla — but then found itself on the losing end of a String Confusion Objection
filed by rival Web.com, one of the many .web applicants.
ICANN win leaves door open for plural gTLD rethink - www.nicenic.net
It was one of the few instances where a SCO panel decided that a plural string was too confusingly similar to
its singular for the two to coexist.
In many other cases, such as .auto(s), .fan(s) and .gift(s), the two strings have been allowed to be delegated.Not wanting to have to fight for .webs at auction against eight .web applicants — which would likely cost eight
figures to win — Vistaprint filed a Request for Reconsideration (which failed), followed by an last-ditch IRP
complaint.But its three-person IRP panel ruled on Friday (pdf) that ICANN did not violate its bylaws by accepting
the SCO decision and subsequently rejecting the RfR.However, the panel handed Vistaprint a silver lining that
may eventually give the company what it wants. Even though ICANN won, Vistaprint may not necessarily have
lost.
Acknowledging Vistaprint raised important public interest questions, the panel ordered ICANN to pay 40% of IRP
costs.The Vistaprint IRP was one of the things holding up the .web contention set, so Friday’s declaration moves
the fabled gTLD one step closer to reality.If the company gets the ability to appeal its SCO loss, it would add
months to the .web runway. If it does not, it will have to remain in the .web contention set, which would head to
auction.
Related posts (automatically generated):
Plural gTLDs give ICANN huge credibility risk
Plural gTLDs not confusing, says ICANN (and two gotchas proving it wrong)
Private auction settles controversial plural gTLD fight
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