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Donuts has decided not to release any of the 2 character domains (LL ,LN, NL, NN) yet.
Last month Donuts announced the availability of more than one million previously unavailable web addresses across its top-level domains. These domains included the collision names and all the 2 character domains reserved by ICANN up until now.
Donuts has notified registrars that all 2 character domains (LL ,LN, NL, NN) and ccTLD labels such as “us” and “co” will now be released as a new separate group called the “Second Level EAP TWO CHARACTER group” – on September 9th, 2015.
This is probably because not all countries have replied if they all allow their respective ccTLDs to be sold as domain names in the New gTLD namespace. Many ICANN comment periods are still open. So Donuts will wait for all comment periods to close and then release all 2 character domains in one batch.
This announcement applies to all Donuts’ groups. (see below) Therefore 2 character domains names previously included in the original PHOTOGRAPHY (June 10th) and BUSINESS (June 17th) groups will now be pulled from these groups and pushed out until the September 9th release.
Donuts will offer registrations via the Early Access Program (EAP) for the first seven days of their availability for the collision domains. The release of these names will begin on June 10, 2015 and will be staggered in batches (see dates below).
| Launch Dates | TLD Categories |
|---|---|
| June 10, 2015 | Photography |
| June 17, 2015 | Business |
| June 24, 2015 | Generic & Fun |
| July 1, 2015 | Technology |
| July 8, 2015 | Education |
| July 15, 2015 | Foods & Goods |
| July 22, 2015 | Shopping |
| July 29, 2015 | Property |
| August 5, 2015 | Building |
| August 12, 2015 | Services |
| August 19, 2015 | Healthcare |
| August 26, 2015 | Financial |
For more details about the upcoming launches and what TLDs each group has click here.
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And how trademark owners (e.g. American Airlines, General Motors, etc.) will be able to register matching new gTLDs before general public? Big brands are paying a lot in fees to Trademark Clearing House with no option to apply first? If Donuts wanna be fair, they should make this clear and neat.
Another question is what will happen to future Donuts’ new gTLDs that haven’t started yet. Will those extensions have two character marks blocked as well, or will they be available from the very beginning?
Donuts had a sunrise period for all tlds where trademark holders could have made their applications.
Anyone that applied (even from sunrise phases in February 2014) will now receive their domains.
Donuts can choose to do it either way. I haven’t checked to see what they did lately.
Other registries made these domains available a few weeks back.
Unfortunately, you are wrong. Two character marks were blocked and not allowed to be applied for during regular Sunrise. I have that confirmed from two independent sources (trademark holders).
I know 1 character domains were blocked in sunrise. I will confirm about 2 character domains but I wouldn’t trust what trademark holders say because they could have misunderstood. ICANN had initially reserved all 2 character domains so they thought it was futile to apply.
You would not trust, but I do and unfortunately that happened. I would love you to get that confirmed directly from Donuts, so we can hear their opinion how fair it is for such trademark holders. Since more interesting extensions were not started, more important is the question how Donuts will handle two characters marks with in future released new gTLDs. Thanks!
Can your trademark holders apply now for 2character domains for donuts tlds in sunrise? I think they can. And if they can they most probably could in the past. Because TMCH did not make any changes.
The problem with the trademark holders you mention is not actually a donuts issue. It would be a TMCH problem.
No, they cannot.
I would argue that it doesn’t matter because 2-character terms shouldn’t be able to be trademarked in the first place.
@PeterT: Are you suggesting that companies like 3M should not be allowed to protect their names? Why that, stupid?
Konstantinos, thank you for sharing the information about Donuts’ release of the “name collision” and two-character names. The intentional hold on the release of two character names is due to three reasons: 1) There remain a few outstanding approvals from ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee on certain two-character names, and more time will allow greater potential resolution of those names; 2) It will be easier for the marketplace to address the release of two-character names at once rather than releasing them sporadically; and 3) most importantly, according to ICANN’s rights protection mechanism requirements, the names will pass through the 90-day trademark claims period, and opening claims at the same time for all names reduces confusion and eases customer communication for registrars (note that two character names are treated differently from collision names, which are exempt from claims). I hope this information helps.