.wed

Status:	Terminated
Type:	Generic
PIC Submitted:	Yes, Download Here
Priority #:	599 - Atgron, Inc.
More information:

.wed was an active gTLD that was proposed ICANN's New gTLD Program. The Registry and manager of the TLD was Atgron, Inc.. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 23 January 2014.

On December 7, 2017, ICANN submitted a Notice of Breach to Atgron, Inc. for failure to pay fees an initiated terminations proceedings. After the completion of arbitration proceedings, ICANN terminated the Registry Agreement for .wed on October 5, 2020.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"18.1 .WED gTLD Mission⁄Purpose

18.1.1 Company Mission

Atgronʹs mission for the .WED gTLD is to provide wedding couples around the world an unambiguous domain name of their choice via this niche gTLD. The .WED gTLD will be an open unrestricted registry but will institute policies designed to promote short-term annual registrations of domain names with the intent to create more frequent availability of domain names to a never ending supply of wedding couples.

18.1.2 Community Mission

While the .WED gTLD will not be a community-based gTLD, Atgron, Inc., the TLD Registry Operator, has a community mission. The community mission of the organization is to honor the service and dedication of soldiers and sailors in the United States by providing employment and training to veterans who wish to re-enter civilian work life in a technical field.

The driving force for both our Company and Community missions is our Chief Executive Officer, with the support of the Atgron, Inc. Board of Directors. Our CEO and Board chose a gTLD extension, which would create inherent leadership roles for women. Our CEO also spent a significant portion of her career working with soldiers and sailors and recognizes the invaluable training our veterans obtain while in service. There is a perception it is a civic duty to employ veterans and while that is a noble sentiment, it distracts from a far more important factor to a successful business. Veterans represent an outstanding candidate pool of capable resources with training and discipline that will benefit any company.

18.2.3 Pledge to Customers

The .WED gTLD will provide a wholesome, responsive venue for couples and families involved in the planning and execution of a wedding. We will strive to provide couples with their desired domain names in a timely fashion by discouraging domain name parking and other forms of domain name speculation.

18.1.4 Pledge to Employees

Our employees will enjoy a friendly, fair, and creative work environment, which respects diversity, new ideas, and hard work.

Our key constituency is couples planning their wedding around the world but with an initial marketing focus in the United States of America. Our target market is couples who want to share their experience via the internet without the need to use the gateways of wedding website resellers in the .com, .biz, .org, .net and other gTLD and ccTLD spaces. The .WED TLD brand will be one that epitomizes the special nature of a wedding and recognizes the significant investment families make in creating an event they will treasure forever. Couples will no longer have to provide their personal information to login to wedding website vendor reseller sites or leverage these reseller website offerings at the third level due to the limited availability of .com and other gTLD domain names. .WED provides an immediate connection between the domain name and the event eliminating the need for longer domain name strings.

.WED will be an open and unrestricted registry. The pricing strategy, registrar policies, Acceptable Use Policy and Wildcard Blocking program are designed to create the best opportunity for couples to obtain the .WED domain name of their choice. These components are also designed to minimize domain name speculation, cyber-squatting and human trafficking. We are particularly concerned with the possibilities of human trafficking and will actively combat this practice. The three policies designed to accomplish these goals are as follows:

Pricing Strategy: Annual registrations and renewals are priced affordably for couples who on average use a website for their engagement and wedding for a year or less and usually no more than 18 months. Any annual registrations over two years or initial registrations exceeding a two-year term will be priced significantly higher than any wedding couple would be expected to budget for a presence on the internet. We recognize this may create an inconvenience for some commercial enterprises that desire a longer-term domain name registration. The .com, .biz, .org, .co, and .net gTLDs as well as many of the new gTLDs and ccTLDs offer businesses and other commercial entities multiple opportunities to have a presence on the internet so Atgron doesnʹt think this represents a barrier to competition and could act as a deterrent to other forms of domain name misuse, particularly those related to intellectual property violations in the .WED TLD.

Registrar policies: Bulk registrations and renewals will only be allowed if registrars confirm the bulk registration or bulk renewal is a result of direct interaction between the registrant and couples or families planning a wedding. Any accredited registrars offering .WED TLD domain names for longer than two year terms, will need to obtain electronic acknowledgement from registrants of their understanding of the significant price increase for .WED TLD domain name registrations beyond two years."

PIC

The applicant submitted PICs, effectively showing its intent to bind itself to the commitments made in its application.

Contract Signed

In October 2013, Atgron, Inc. received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .wed after passing the Initial Evaluation.

Delegation and Availability

.wed was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on January 23, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

Applicant Video

ICANN published a series of videos interviewing applicants for New gTLDs. Adrienne McAdory explains the idea behind .wed:

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