.CLUB

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Status:	Proposed
Type:	Generic
Category:	Lifestyle
Priority #:	1046 - .CLUB Domains LLC 1356 - Donuts (Koko Manor, LLC) 1637 - Merchant Law Group LLP

.club is a proposed new gTLD in ICANN's new gTLD program. .CLUB Domains LLC, has been public about their application from the beginning, and won their contention set via an auction performed by Innovative Auctions for an undisclosed amount. .Club was one of the first six TLD contention sets to be allocated via private auctions. All told, the six auctions brought in $9mm.

.CLUB Domains LLC filed the application on the first possible day, January, 12, 2012. Former applicants include Merchant Law Group LLP, a Canadian law-firm that applied for eight new gTLDs; and Donuts (Koko Manor, LLC), a start-up company co-founded by domain industry veterans that applied for 307 domain names strings, each via a different LLC.

Application Details

.CLUB Domains LLC

The .club domain appears to be a unrestricted gTLD intended for use by the many professional and amateur clubs found around the world. .CLUB Domains LLC has publicly stated that they have secured funding for their application and the potential auction that may ensue, and also that they have no intention of negotiating with any other company applying for .club but intend to win the auction. Apparently, they have already been approached by other .club applicants and have decided the best way to secure the domain is in open auction. The company will use the digital archery solutions of its business affiliate, the Digital Archery Experts to ensure its inclusion in the first batch of applications to be initially evaluated by ICANN.

In May 2013, ahead of a possible private auction for the string, .Club LLC filed with the United States' SEC as it was seeking to raise up to $7 million USD for the presumed auction.

Watch the .CLUB Domains LLC team as they realize they won the .club TLD via private auction: <videoflash>Wu38PkeyF0M</videoflash>

Developments

Name Collision

Many applications for new gTLDs have raised security concerns because the applied-for strings are already in wide use on internal networks in certain areas of the world. This would create a name collision if the new gTLD were to be delegated and could cause serious security concerns for some strings. The remaining application for .club has been deemed an "uncalculated risk" by ICANN because of name collision with existing internal networks, which means the application will face delays until the issues are resolved. However, in a letter that .CLUB Domains LLC CTO Dirk Bhagat sent to ICANN on September 16, 2013, .CLUB Domains has proposed a solution to the name collision issue. The company hired the same firm that ICANN hired ([Interisle Consulting]) to report on the proposed .club gTLD, and are proposing to reserve the top 50 name collisions of .club, which is available knowledge now due to Interisle's report. The top 50 name collisions would be blocked from registration, and according to .CLUB Domains LLC would create a number of queries to the gTLD that it would be deemed by ICANN as "low risk."