.cpa

Status:	Proposed
Registry:	American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Registry Backend:	GoDaddy
Type:	Generic
Category:	Professional
Priority #:	219 - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 330 - Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.) 403 - Top Level Domain Holdings 974 - American Institute of Certified Public Accountants 1202 - Donuts (Trixy Canyon) 1609 - CPA AUSTRALIA LTD

.cpa is a proposed TLD is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. CPA stands for "Certified Public Accountant."

Current Applicants

There are 5 entities submitting 6 applications for the TLD:

1. Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd.- It is one of 68 applications that the company has filed on its own behalf. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
2. Donuts applied for the TLD under the company name Trixy Canyon. This applicant submitted a Public Interest Commitment, which can be downloaded here.
3. CPA AUSTRALIA LTD- The organization filed a Community gTLD application. It has more than 139,000 professional members in finance, accounting and business.
4. Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)- The company submitted applications for 101 TLDs. Sarah Falvey, Senior Policy Analyst of Google is the main contact person in the application.
5. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants- An largest association of certified public accountants in the United States. The association filed two applications for the string; one as Community gTLD and the other as Generic TLD.
6. The sixth application is the non-community application by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Community Applicants

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, has submitted a community priority application and a general application, this is done to ensure that the applicant still has a chance to manage the TLD even if it is denied community status by ICANN. The other community priority applicant is the CPA AUSTRALIA LTD.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants "set the professional and administrative standards for all CPA in the United States..[it] both administers and grades the professional examination required to obtain a CPA... It is the AICPA members – whose number currently amounts to about 377,000 members in 128 countries – and their needs that the Applicant is committed to serve since its establishment more than 100 years ago." The AICPA has international affiliates, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Their registration polices state that, "[a]t least during the initial months or even years following the delegation of the .cpa gTLD to the Applicant, this extension is likely going to be a so-called “single registrant TLD”..where “(i) all domain name registrations in the TLD are registered to, and maintained by, Registry Operator for its own exclusive use, and (ii) Registry Operator does not sell, distribute or transfer control or use of any registrations in the TLD to any third party that is not an Affiliate of Registry Operator.” The AICPA goes on to state that it foresees a time when "its Affiliates, individual members and possibly third parties who perform services or offer products to the benefit of the Applicant’s members, will possibly be entitled to register domain names in .cpa."

CPA AUSTRALIA LTD (CPA Australia) represents a membership of 139,000 Certified Practicing Accountants (CPAs) spread across 114 countries, with a particularly strong presence in the fast growing Asia-Pacific region including China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Registration will be open to full CPA members and students; and "[a]t some point in the future, the CPA Australia community may review and consider expanding the community to include practicing accountants and other members of various CPA organisations around the world which also use a similar CPA designation."

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.

GAC Early Warning

4 of the applications for .cpa were issued a GAC Early Warning from the representative of Australia and GAC Chair, Heather Dryden: The two applications from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the CPA AUSTRALIA LTD and Donuts application. The remaining two applicants, Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. and Google did not receive any GAC Early Warnings. 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 to Donuts notes that the application does not have enough mechanisms in place to avoid consumer harm in what is a regulated market sector.