Changes

Cramton's original model proposed to run auctions during the first quarter of 2013, before ICANN announced the results of their Initial Evaluation. Such a model would allow losing bidders to receive 70% back from their ICANN application fee, but would pose difficulties if winning applicants later discovered their applications were rejected as other applicants would have withdrawn already, and the new gTLD would be left without an owner. The former model also lumped all TLDs that an individual applicant had applied for in one package. Criticisms stating that such a model would benefit larger companies led to a change, so that auctions will now proceed on a TLD-by-TLD basis, with all auctions being simultaneously resolved at the same time.<ref name="domainincite"></ref>  

Cramton's original model proposed to run auctions during the first quarter of 2013, before ICANN announced the results of their Initial Evaluation. Such a model would allow losing bidders to receive 70% back from their ICANN application fee, but would pose difficulties if winning applicants later discovered their applications were rejected as other applicants would have withdrawn already, and the new gTLD would be left without an owner. The former model also lumped all TLDs that an individual applicant had applied for in one package. Criticisms stating that such a model would benefit larger companies led to a change, so that auctions will now proceed on a TLD-by-TLD basis, with all auctions being simultaneously resolved at the same time.<ref name="domainincite"></ref>  

IAL is the only group that has resolved gTLD contention sets via private auction. The first Applicant Auction was held in June 2013, and to date, Innovative Auctions has resolved contention for 14 TLDs, with a total sales price of $18.66 million <ref name="Applicant Auction">[[http://www.applicantauction.com/blog/]]</ref>. The next (third) auction will be held on September 23.

IAL is the only group that has resolved gTLD contention sets via private auction. The first Applicant Auction was held in June 2013, and to date, Innovative Auctions has resolved contention for 18 TLDs. For the first 14 strings, the total sales price was $18.66 million <ref name="Applicant Auction">[[http://www.applicantauction.com/blog/]]</ref>. The results of the third auction were undisclosed.

[[Innovative Auctions]]' model is preferred by many applicants, including the largest [[TLD]] applicant, [[Donuts]].<ref>[http://domainincite.com/10828-heres-how-donuts-wants-to-resolve-its-158-new-gtld-contention-fights Here's How Donuts Wants To Resolve its 158 Contention Fights, DomainIncite.com]Published 23 Oct 2012, Retrieved 8 Jan 2013</ref> [[Raymond King]], applicant for 10 TLDs with [[Top Level Design]] expressed his favor for Private Auctions in general, and Innovative Auctions specifically, in an [http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130102_private_vs_icann_auction_of_last_resort/ opinion piece on CircleID]. The Applicant Auction was featured in a recent article [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/08/web-domains-great-internet-land-grab.html in The New Yorker].

[[Innovative Auctions]]' model is preferred by many applicants, including the largest [[TLD]] applicant, [[Donuts]].<ref>[http://domainincite.com/10828-heres-how-donuts-wants-to-resolve-its-158-new-gtld-contention-fights Here's How Donuts Wants To Resolve its 158 Contention Fights, DomainIncite.com]Published 23 Oct 2012, Retrieved 8 Jan 2013</ref> [[Raymond King]], applicant for 10 TLDs with [[Top Level Design]] expressed his favor for Private Auctions in general, and Innovative Auctions specifically, in an [http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130102_private_vs_icann_auction_of_last_resort/ opinion piece on CircleID]. The Applicant Auction was featured in a recent article [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/08/web-domains-great-internet-land-grab.html in The New Yorker].