.app

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Status:	Proposed
Type:	Generic
Category:	Technology
Priority #:	209 - Afilias 256 - .APP REGISTRY INC. 744 - Donuts (Lone Maple, LLC) 762 - TRI Ventures, Inc. 781 - Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.) 918 - Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. 1256 - Amazon 1459 - Dot App Inc. (MacPaw) 1482 - STRAAT Investments (NU DOT CO LLC) 1566 - Merchant Law Group LLP 1576 - Radix (Webera Inc.) 1799 - Famous Four Media (dot App Limited)

.app is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. In an ICANN "Auction of last resort" that took place in February 2015, Google won the rights to the string over 12 other applicants by paying the winning bid of $25,001,000.

1. Dot App Inc., a venture from Oleksandr Kosovan's MacPaw Inc.. The application aims to provide an extension intended only for app developers and publishers, and will restrict registration accordingly.
2. Top Level Domain Holdings, .app is one of 68 applications that the company has filed for on its own behalf. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
3. Radix (Webera Inc.) Brijesh Harish Joshi of is listed as the contact person. Radix applied for 31 TLDs
4. TRI Ventures, Inc., the contact person is Salil Jayant Darji
5. Amazon, the company listed Lorna Jean Gradden as contact person
6. STRAAT Investments (NU DOT CO LLC), The parent company of .co Internet. is the contact person
7. Donuts (Lone Maple, LLC) applied for 307 TLDs. Daniel Schindler, EVP of Marketing and sales of Donuts is the contact person in the application. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
8. .APP REGISTRY INC., John Kane-VP of Corporate Services of Afilias is the contact person
9. Famous Four Media (dot App Limited), the company filed for 61 new gTLDs including .app. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
10. Merchant Law Group LLP, Brendon James Ralfe is the company's contact person
11. Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.), Sarah Falvey, Senior Policy Analyst of Google is listed as contact person. The search engine giant applied for a total of 101 TLDs.
12. Afilias Limited, John Kane is the contact person

Previous Applicants

1. Dot App LLC, In March 2013, it was announced that the applicant had withdrawn, qualifying for a 70% refund of its $185,000 application fee.

Developments

GAC Early Warning

The applications from Google and Amazon were both 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. A letter from the President of the Association for Competitive Technology echoed the GAC Early Warning, saying Google's application would be bad for competition due to exclusion of access to the string.

Radix received a GAC Early Warning as an entire applicant, where each one of the applicants was flagged by the U.S. Government. This seems to be the only time a portfolio applicant had all of their applications warned. The issue does not deal with the technical capabilities or thematic content of their applications, but rather the inclusion of an email address associated with the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation. It seems that Radix included correspondence with this address as a recommendation with each of their applications.

TLDH & $15mm Auction Funding

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.