.vip
| Status: | Proposed |
| country: | International |
| Type: | Generic |
| Category: | Lifestyle |
More information: 
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.vip is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. After an ICANN auction that occurred in September 2014, Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH) became the only applicant for the TLD.
Current Applicant[edit | edit source]
- Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. - .vip is one of 68 applications that Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. has filed for on its own behalf.[1] This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
TLDH & $15mm Auction Funding[edit | edit source]
On February 26 2013, Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. announced that it had entered into a funding agreement worth $15 million to be used in the case of auction for a specific unnamed TLD. The investor will not receive ownership of the TLD but a share of future revenues. TLDH did not name the TLD that the funds are directed for, and it is in 11 head to head contentions and 12 featuring more than one contender.[2]
Previous Applicants[edit | edit source]
- Vipspace Enterprises LLC
- I-REGISTRY Ltd., Niederlassung Deutschland
- Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
- Donuts (John Corner, LLC), one of 307 TLDs applied for by the company. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
- VIP Registry Pte. Ltd.
Objections[edit | edit source]
An official Legal Rights Objection was filed by the applicant I-Registry Ltd.., against all fellow applicants.[3]
A Legal Rights Objection, as defined by the ICANN approved mediator, WIPO, is when, "third parties may file a formal objection to an application on several grounds, including, for trademark owners and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) [..] When such an objection is filed, an independent panel (comprised of one or three experts) will determine whether the applicant’s potential use of the applied-for gTLD would be likely to infringe [..] the objector’s existing trademark, or IGO name or acronym."[4]
ICANN Auction[edit | edit source]
In one of the first few public ICANN auctions to occur for the New gTLD Program that officially launched in 2012, TLDH won the rights to the string over the other applicants, who withdrew their applications as a result.
The auction occurred 17 September 2014, along with two other ICANN auctions for .buy and .tech. The winning price was $3,000,888 US Dollars. Unlike Private auctions, the winning price will not be split among the losing applicants, but will be held by ICANN and used towards a non-profit charity that is yet to be clarified.[5]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ gTLD Application Update 92 applications submitted, TLDH.org
- ↑ TLDh Gets 15 Million for A Single Top Level Domain Name Auction, DomainNameWire.com Published and Retrieved 26 Feb 2013
- ↑ LRO Cases, WIPO.int
- ↑ LRO, WIPO.int Retrieved 25 March 2013
- ↑ Auction Results ICANN.org; Retrieved 19 September 2014