.tennis

Status:	Active
country:	International
Date Implemented:	20 May 2015
Type:	Generic
Category:	Sport
Priority #:	627 - Famous Four Media (dot Tennis Limited) 981 - .TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD 1326 - Washington Team Tennis, LLC 1417 - Donuts (Cotton Bloom, LLC)
More information:

.tennis is an active gTLD in ICANN's new gTLD program. Donuts (Cotton Bloom, LLC) manages the TLD and is its Registry. The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 04 February, 2015. The TLD became generally available May 20, 2015.

Current Applicant

1. Donuts (Cotton Bloom, LLC) - This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.

Private Auction

A private auction resolved the contention set for this string in November 2014, with Donuts winning the rights for the gTLD.

Previous Applicants

1. .TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD
2. Famous Four Media (dot Tennis Limited)
3. Washington Team Tennis, LLC

.TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD

.TENNIS AUSTRALIA LTD's application was issued a GAC Early Warning from the representative of Australia and GAC Chair, Heather Dryden. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.

The warning states that the applicant is "seeking exclusive access to a common generic string .. that relates to a broad market sector," which Ms. Dryden notes could have unintended consequences and a negative impact on competition.

Its application is a Community Priority Application. "Only individuals and entities belonging to the Tennis Australia community will be eligible to register a domain name within the .tennis TLD, as strict eligibility criteria will be introduced...Tennis Australia provides benefits to 2,176 affiliated tennis clubs and their over 180,000 tennis player members throughout Australia."

Current language in its application does not seem to leave room for any registration of the .tennis TLD outside of Australia.

CPE Result

In March 2014 a Community Priority Evaluation (CPE) panel decided that the applicant would not prevail as a community applicant, giving them a 11 out of 16 possible points (14 are needed to pass). Thus the applicant will now have to resolve the contention set through other means such as a Private or ICANN auction.

Top-Level Domain

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).