DigitalBrandNews

dotMasr the Egyptian IDN registry announces sunrise for  مصر (.Egypt)

Beginning August 22, 2010 the Egyptian IDN registry will launch the Sunrise phase for مصر (.Egypt).  During Sunrise only applications from businesses and organizations will be issued domain names in Arabic.

Based on limited information there will be two Sunrise phases followed by a Landrush phase

Sunrise:
Applicants will be required to submit the following documentation during the first Sunrise:
1.  Commercial Registration Certificate in Egypt  or A copy of the certificate of registration of a valid trademark (Must be Arabic character Trademark)
2.  Legalized Power of Attorney

The registry posted that in the second Sunrise phase, only one of the documents will be required.  No time frame has been provided regarding the second phase.

Landrush (no date specified):
The current information is that anyone can apply for an Egyptian IDN during Landrush. The only documentation required will be a legalized power of attorney.  However, the policy committee has not finalized the details and these could change.
Timing for  امارات. (.EMARAT) posted by  .ae Domain Administration (aeDA)

aeDA has announced proposed dates for the four launch phases of the IDN امارات. (.EMARAT).  Other than the proposed timing, no other information has been provided at this time.

Phase 1 (Government Phase):       opened 30 May 2010
Phase 2 (Trademark Owners in the UAE and other GCC countries):   from 27 September 2010
Phase 3 (Exclusive and Special Names):      from 15 November 2010
Phase 4 (General Availability):       from 11 December  2010

The number of expected new gTLDs is still speculative and will likely remain just that until the application period ends.  However there is a website of proposed new gTLDs that have been identified by Internet addresses and extensions. The site lists 106 proposed new gTLDs containing a mix of categories: community, ethnic, geographical (geo; country, region, city), IDN and specialized.  Not all known IDNs proposed are on the list, and .deloitte is missing from the brand category. The specialized category contains proposed gTLDs such as .car, .mls, .money, .music, .sport, .web as well as 26 others. 

A check of the supporting websites indicates a number of proposed gTLDs have backing and potentially viable business cases, while others appear to be seeking support and investment. There are likely as many if not more new gTLDs being considered that haven’t been announced, so while the exact number isn’t known it is apparent there is growing interest in the new gTLD concept.

The complete list can be viewed at www.newtlds.tv/newtlds

Fifteen multiple listing services (MLS) in the U.S. have formed the MLS Domains Association with the intent to obtain the .mls gTLD according to their press release.  The group members currently operate Multiple listing services (MLS) used by real estate brokers.  “For years, MLSs and REALTOR® Associations have objected to businesses referring to themselves as ‘MLSs’ in their marketing, when in fact they are not MLSs,” said Bob Bemis, interim President of the Association and CEO of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. “Our goal is to create a place, the .MLS top-level domain, where the web sites actually belong to MLSs, not to other types of business,” he said.
The group intends for .mls to benefit consumers by providing a unique location of MLS data on the Internet and for the TLD to be the definitive source or MLS listings.