• February 3, 2012

A coalition of 166 companies and industry groups notified ICANN of their strong support for a “Do Not Sell” registry as part of ICANN’s Top Level Domain (TLD) expansion program.
 
Under that proposal, which was first delivered to ICANN by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) on January 9th, all NGOs, IGOs and commercial stakeholders concerned about protecting their brands when the TLD application window opened on Jan. 12 would be given the opportunity to have those brands registered, without cost, on a temporary “Do Not Sell” list to be maintained by ICANN during the first application round. 

Any party that does not want to have their brands on the “Do Not Sell” list and would rather apply for a new TLD would be free to do so.
 
In the letter to ICANN, the 166 companies and groups stated: “We are asking ICANN to do nothing more than maintain the status quo for critical groups that have established serious concerns for a limited period of time, while the parties work together in good faith and avoid further conflict. It remains our sincere hope that ICANN will accept this simple, temporary solution or propose an alternative one.”
 
Bob Liodice, ANA President and CEO, stated: “In his letter to ICANN on Jan. 3, Assistant Secretary Strickling identified several specific issues that ICANN needs to address, including the perceived need for defensive registrations. Our proposal for a ‘Do Not Sell’ list is a reasonable, constructive approach that could easily be adopted by ICANN on a temporary basis to address this concern. So far, we have not had any response from ICANN. There are now 166 major companies and industry groups from around the world who are calling for this registry. We hope that ICANN and the NTIA will support this proposal and work with us on implementing it.”

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