Skip to main content
Resources

gTLD Registry Agreement Renewals

Please note that the English language version of all translated content and documents are the official versions and that translations in other languages are for informational purposes only.

New gTLDs from the 2012 New gTLD Program are governed by the Base Registry Agreement (RA) with initial 10-year terms. The agreements are expected to renew for successive 10-year terms unless any of the exceptions set forth in Section 4.2 of the Base RA apply.

ICANN org has built a registry agreement renewal process with several key elements in mind: expectation of renewal, efficiency, and transparency. As part of this renewal process, registry operators are not required to take action to prompt the renewal. As part of ongoing operations, registry operators should maintain the appropriate contact information to ensure registry agreement renewal information can be delivered to the appropriate contacts. TLDs that are not subject to the Base RA (e.g., legacy gTLDs) will be subject to the renewal terms as set forth in their respective registry agreements.

Please note, if a registry operator does not wish to renew its registry agreement, the registry operator should follow the standard process to terminate its registry agreement with 180 days' notice per Section 4.4 of the Base RA.

Renewal Process

Below is a brief overview of the registry agreement renewal process for gTLDs on the Base RA:

  1. ICANN Review - approximately 90-120 calendar days prior to the end of a registry agreement's initial term, ICANN org will perform Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) checks and review registry operator compliance status to ensure the conditions for renewal are met (i.e., that any of the exceptions set forth in Section 4.2 of the registry agreement do not apply).
  2. Determination - The registry operators of registry agreements expected to be renewed will be issued registry agreement renewal letters reflecting the start of the successive term for the TLD(s). These renewal letters will be sent to the registry primary contacts and legal notice contacts. Where feasible, ICANN org will batch and provide a single renewal letter for one or more TLDs with the same registry primary and legal notice contracts. For registry agreements that will not be renewed, ICANN will provide notice as part of the relevant compliance issue(s).
  3. Administrative Tasks - If a renewal letter has been issued, ICANN org will publish the letter on the registry agreements webpage(s) specific to the TLD(s).

Please note that if there are any open compliance issues associated with the registry agreement(s), those issues will continue to be handled through the compliance process and a renewal does not waive any rights or resolve any open tickets or issues.

References

  1. Registry Agreements
  2. NSp User Guide: Contact Update
  3. Registry Agreement Terminations
Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."