ANA Asks ICANN to Extend Comment Window on New gTLD Applications
Washington, DC; July 30, 2012 - The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has written to Akram Atallah, Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) asking for the public comment window on applications for new generic top level domains (gTLDs) to be extended. The comment window closes on August 12, 2012. Due to the large number of applications, ANA is asking ICANN for more time to review the numerous policy and technical issues that have come to light since the 1,930 applications were first revealed.
Bob Liodice, ANA’s President and CEO, stated, “The number of applications ICANN received exceeded even their most optimistic projections. A 60-day comment window may have been sufficient for 500 applications, but with nearly 2,000, we believe more time is needed for the public at large to understand fully what the implications of these new TLDs will be.”
There is precedent for ICANN to delay the closing of the comment window. ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) recently extended the comment period for its Early Warning period. There is no reason why this same policy cannot be extended to the public comment period on new gTLDs.
“Public comments play an important role in ICANN’s multistakeholder, deliberative process,” Liodice continued. “Affording interested parties the ability to evaluate these critically important applications is necessary to preserve and protect the efficient operating of the TLD system going forward. Due to the complex nature of many of the applications, 60 days may not be enough time to craft a coherent comment on them.”
The letter can be viewed at http://www.ana.net/getfile/17820.
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About the ANA
The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.
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