Proposed .NAME Renewal Registry Agreement Posted for Public Comment

The proposed .NAME renewal registry agreement is posted for public comment and can be viewed at http://ww.icann.org/tlds/agreements/name/renewal-proposed-21jun07.pdf [PDF, 97K] and appendices at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/name/appendices-renewal-proposed-final-07.pdf [PDF, 305K].

The proposed .NAME renewal agreement is fundamentally the same as what was negotiated and approved for .BIZ, also an unsponsored/restricted gTLD, in 2006. A marked version contrasting the approved .BIZ agreement to the proposed .NAME renewal agreement is attached for comparison and can be viewed at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/name/agreement-draft-21jun07.pdf [PDF, 148K].

There are elements of the proposed renewal agreement that vary from the current .NAME agreement. The attached table, which may be viewed at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/name/name-biz-comparison-25jun07.pdf [PDF, 132K], summarizes all the differences between the 2001 and proposed 2007 agreement. The substantive changes include:

• .NAME currently pays an annual fixed fee that has been subject to a maximum 10% annual increase since its inception. The proposed renewal agreement contains the same registry-level transaction fee schedule as the recently approved gTLD agreements.

• .NAME makes a distinction between traditional second and third-level registrations vs. bulk third-level registrations. Bulk is defined as sales of 50,000 names or more under .NAME’s consumer mass-market approach to third-level registrations. .NAME has said their mass-market approach to third-level registrations is needed for the consumer market to prosper and grow.

• Bulk third-level registrations have a fee, as of the effective date of the agreement, roughly equivalent to 5% of revenue with: no minimum fee vs. second-level and traditional third-level registrations that have a fee minimum of $0.15US per registration: and a fee cap of $0.15US vs. other recently approved registry agreements that have a fee cap of $0.25US.

  This fee structure is intended to facilitate the sale of third-level names via a special program, a form of innovation, intended to provide new consumer choices.

Comments on the proposed agreement can be posted to name-renewal-2007@icann.org no later than 5:00PM PST, 29 July 2007, and viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/name-renewal-2007/. Comments will be considered by the ICANN Board along with the proposed .NAME renewal agreement at its meeting on 14 August 2007.