closed Proposed Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement - Public Comment 1 of 2

Outcome

In total, 12 Public Comments were submitted by stakeholders from across the community on the first of two Public Comment proceedings on the proposed Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement (Next Round RA). One of 12 comments from the Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG) came through ICANN Global Support.

Commenters considered whether the proposed language was consistent with the Final Report on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) Policy Development Process (Final Report) outputs.

Commenters also evaluated whether the changes related to policy in the proposed Next Round RA appropriately implemented the recommendations and intent of the following ICANN Consensus Policies:

• Registration Data Policy
• Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs Policy
• Phase 1 Final Report on the Internationalized Domain Names Expedited Policy Development Process 
• Phase 1 Final Report on the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs)

Additionally, commenters provided feedback on the operational updates in the proposed Next Round RA that intend to allow for changes to current processes and to create efficiencies within ICANN and for Registry Operators. 

All Public Comments received were reviewed and carefully considered by ICANN org. Any substantive changes required to the proposed Next Round RA that impact the SubPro Policy Recommendations will be reviewed with the SubPro Implementation Review Team (IRT).

What We Received Input On

As part of the New gTLD Program: Next Round, ICANN is preparing the Next Round Base gTLD Registry Agreement (Next Round RA), outlining the rights and obligations of new gTLD Registry Operators. Once the ICANN Board approves the final terms of the Next Round RA, it will serve as the contractual document between successful applicants in the New gTLD Program: Next Round and ICANN. Note this draft is not final and is subject to ICANN Board consideration and approval. ICANN is opening its first Public Comment proceeding on the Next Round RA to seek input from the community, including potential Next Round applicants.

Consistent with the outputs of the Final Report on the new gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (Final Report), the Next Round RA is based on the revised Base gTLD RA (approved by the ICANN Board 21 January 2024), incorporates changes from Board-approved policy recommendations, and includes other operational updates based on ICANN’s experience since launching the 2012 round of the New gTLD Program. 

The Guided Submission form will ask if the changes related to policy in the proposed Next Round RA appropriately incorporate the wording and intent of the following (and as summarized in the “Overview of Policy Updates” document found in the Supporting Information section below):

• Final Report - the policy recommendations for future rounds of gTLD applications following the 2012 round, as developed by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). 
• ICANN Consensus Policies - 
• Registration Data Policy - the ICANN Consensus Policy that governs how domain name registration data is collected, maintained, and disclosed.
• Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs Policy - the ICANN Consensus Policy that protects the names and acronyms of IGOs and INGOs.
• Phase 1 Final Report on the Internationalized Domain Names Expedited Policy Development Process (IDN EPDP Phase 1) - the ICANN Consensus Policy that introduces variant gTLDs.
• Phase 1 Final Report on the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) - the recommendations that update the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), the Sunrise and Trademark Claims services offered through the TMCH, and the Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (TM-PDDRP).

The Guided Submission form will also ask if there is any community feedback on the changes related to operational updates, as summarized in the “Overview of Operational Updates” document found in the Supporting Information section below.

This first Public Comment proceeding is intended to gather feedback on substantive elements of the Next Round RA and the community is encouraged to provide its input during this proceeding to allow more time for consideration. The second Public Comment proceeding, expected for September 2025, is intended for incremental changes, including those resulting from the feedback received in the first Public Comment proceeding, as applicable and appropriate

Background

On 18 February 2021, the GNSO approved the Final Report and transmitted it to the ICANN Board for consideration as required by the ICANN Bylaws. The Final Report presents final recommendations, implementation guidance, and other outputs relating to the next round of new gTLDs.

In the 16 March 2023 Board Resolution, the ICANN Board directed ICANN org to begin the implementation of a subset of outputs from the Final Report. Subsequently, an Implementation Review Team was formed and has been assisting ICANN with implementation of the outputs since its first meeting on 16 May 2023. The Board has since taken additional action on further subsets of outputs from the Final Report, including on 10 September 2023, 26 October 2023, 8 June 2024, and 14 November 2024.

Consistent with the outputs of the Final Report (Topic 36), the proposed Next Round RA maintains the structure of a base gTLD Registry Agreement with specifications detailing technical and operational requirements. In addition, the proposed agreement: 

• Includes operational criteria to ensure compliance with ICANN policies;
• Has an initial term of a commercially reasonable length (10 years); and 
• Includes a renewal expectancy.

ICANN used the revised Base gTLD RA that was approved by the ICANN Board on 21 January 2024 as the starting point, which retains all global amendments to date, including the latest DNS Abuse Global Amendment and the Global Amendment to add Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP). ICANN org worked with the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (SubPro IRT) specifically on the policy-related issues for the Next Round RA since sharing the first preliminary working draft of the Next Round RA with the SubPro IRT on 1 November 2024. ICANN org also took the opportunity to integrate other policy-related obligations (i.e., Registration Data Policy, IDN EPDP Phase 1, etc.) to ensure this is the most up-to-date RA once available. 

In addition, the Next Round RA includes operational updates intended to allow for changes to current processes and to create efficiencies within ICANN and for Registry Operators. Members of the Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) reviewed and provided feedback to ICANN on the proposed operational updates. This feedback has been taken to account in the proposed Next Round RA.

While ICANN discussed this version of the Next Round RA with various community members, including as noted with the SubPro IRT and some of the members of the RySG, they do not represent or speak for new gTLD applicants generally, or any group of applicants and ICANN encourages feedback from all parts of the ICANN community, including potential Next Round applicants.

Supporting Information