AMMAN - Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization’s (TAGorg) Internet Affairs Manager, Bilal Beiram, took part in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 30th International Public Meeting which was held in Los Angeles, California, USA, October 29 - November 2, 2007.
The event included a number of workshops and forums that addressed, among several key issues, two of the biggest issues ever to strike the domain name system – Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).
“A decision to form a Policy Development Process (PDP) working group on the issue of domain name tasting was taken during the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council (GNSO) meeting,” said Beiram.
He elaborated that domain tasting is the practice of registering a domain for a very short period of time to test its marketability, loading it with pay per click ads from the major search engines, and seeing whether the return on investment is worth paying to keep the domain. If it isn’t, domain tasters return the domain for a refund; if it is, they pay the $6 registration fee to keep it.
“The working Group will discuss the issue of domain tasting, how to prevent bad faith activities related to it and how tasting will affect trademark owners in particular,” added Beiram who has been recently elected to the GNSO Council.
Resolutions adopted at the 30th International Public Meeting included the formation of an IDN working group to develop a fast-track policy/process for introducing IDNs as well as having staff continue working on implementation analysis for new gTLDs.
During the course of the meeting, Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealand lawyer, was elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Board of ICANN.