See also ICANN's Annotated Timeline: New gTLDs: What to Expect in 2012


ICANN's Plan for Expanded Numbers of gTLDs
In June 2011, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) formally approved a plan to expand the number of new gTLDs in the domain name system. 



Learn more about how new gTLDs will affect you and your brands


INTA Resources

“To TLD or Not to TLD, That Is the Question” (INTA Bulletin Vol. 65 No. 19 - November 1, 2010)

Brand Owners Prepare for Launch of New gTLDs (INTA Bulletin Vol. 66 No. 14 - August 1, 2011)

View INTA’s Webcast: "Overview of New gTLDs: The Application Period"

 Check out FAQ's: Speaker Responses to Questions from INTA Webcast “Overview of New gTLDs: The Application Period”


ICANN Resources

Updated gTLD Applicant Guidebook and Applicant Guidebook Supplemental Notes

New gTLD Fact Sheets

New gTLD FAQs

Reference Materials for Applicants

New gTLD Applicant Support Program



WIPO Resources

FAQ on “Legal Rights Objections under ICANN's New gTLD Program -- Filing a Legal Rights Objection at WIPO: What You Need To Know”

WIPO Center-produced summary of “Trademark Rights Protection Mechanisms for New gTLDs”

“WIPO Observations on New gTLD Dispute Resolution Mechanisms”

Background
The Internet domain name system is constructed as a hierarchy. The domain space is divided into top-level domains (TLDs), with each TLD subdivided into second-level domains, and so on. Most TLDs with three or more characters, such as .com, .net, and .org, are referred to as generic TLDs, or gTLDs. There are currently 22 gTLDs.

Public policy deliberations over how to structure the top-level space of the Internet’s addressing system have been ongoing since the Internet became open for commercial use in the mid-1990s. In February 1998, the U.S. Government issued a Green Paper concerning proposed ways to improve technical management of the Internet Domain Name System.

The Green Paper proposed certain actions designed to privatize the management of Internet names and addresses, and proposed the addition of 5 new gTLDs to the domain name system.

 INTA's Response to the Green Paper

After receiving comments from INTA, among more than 650 other submissions on the Green Paper, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a general statement of policy on the Management of Internet Names and Addresses later that year, known as the White Paper.

The White Paper called for the creation of a new, private, not-for-profit corporation responsible for coordinating specific DNS functions for the benefit of the Internet as a whole, and stated that the new corporation would be the most appropriate body to make decisions related to the introduction of new gTLDs, based on global input. This process led to the formation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which subsequently introduced a limited number of new gTLDs shortly following its formation, and again in 2004.

In June 2008, ICANN, the organization that manages the Internet's domain name system, began considering a plan to expand the number of new gTLDs in the domain name system. INTA and other stakeholders worked throughout the gTLD policy development process to ensure that the new system would provide adequate protection to trademarks.