.cars

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Status:	Proposed
Type:	Generic
Category:	Industry
Priority #:	295 - Uniregistry, Corp. 1124 - Dominion Enterprises (DERCars, LLC) 1152 - Donuts (Koko Castle, LLC)

.cars is a new gTLD applied for in ICANN's New gTLD Program.

Applicants

The applicants are:

1. Donuts (Koko Castle, LLC), a start-up registry operator backed by large investors which has applied for 307 new gTLDs. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
2. Uniregistry, Corp.- a new company established by Frank Schilling, a well-known domainer. The company filed applications for 54 new gTLDs.
3. DERCars, LLC- the contact person for the company is Guy R. Friddell III.

DERCars, LLC

DERCars, LLC'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.

String Confusion Objection

Google filed a separate String Confusion Objection against all three applicants of .cars, stating that the string was confusingly similar to Google's application for .car. On 7 August 2013 the ICDR decided one of three objections submitted against .cars, ruling in favor of the applicant, Donuts. The ICANN community initially saw this ruling as setting a precedent that plural-word strings are not confusingly similar to their singular forms. However, later rulings, such as Donuts' application for .pets, showed that no such precedent had been set. This created some controversy within the community.