The geographic protections are mainly at the top level, i.e. you can't apply for a new gTLD of .unitedkingdom for example. The geographic restrictions are mainly in three parts, you can't apply for 2 ASCII character gTLDs (this in effect protects any potential new countries that come into existence). You can't apply for a gTLD that is either the proper full name or short form name of a country or anything that is confusingly similar, i.e. no .unitedstates. And finally if you want to apply for a name that is a city or region name you need at least a letter of non objection from the constituent governments.
Trademark protections come in three parts. At the top level a trademark holder can object to you applying for a TLD that is an exact match for a trademark they hold in any jurisdiction. There are provision for trademark front running as well here. At the second level registries are required to provide protection for trademark holders both at registry start up (sunrise and landrush) as well as for ongoing operations. The protections during sunrise and landrush are stronger than during ongoing operations.
During sunrise and landrush registries are required to restrict registrations that are an exact match to marks in the trademark clearing house. They are also required to implement the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) during sunrise and landrush and the first 60 days of general availability. There is also a requirement for the UDRP for ongoing operations but this is almost exactly the same for other existing gTLDs (ccTLDs are a different matter).
Obviously there are corner cases to the above and there are a large number of details involved. If you want more information a good starting point is the Applicant Guidebook which you can get from this link:
Nothing technically prevents a TLD from having an A record, it's just uncommon. So there could very well be http://microsoft/ or http://apple/, which would appear as "microsoft" and "apple" in FF and Chrome, at least.
I think you'll find that IANA (currently ICANN) refuses to put general purpose A, and AAAA records in the root. As far as I am aware only NS, "glue" A (and AAAA), and DNSSEC records are allowed in the root (aside from the records necessary for the root itself, i.e. SOA etc).
You should also note that email addresses that doesn't have a '.' in the host part are technically invalid, i.e. me@mytld is not a valid fully qualified email address.
[+] [-] lambada|14 years ago|reply
Trademarks in which country / how do they plan to cope with conflicting trademarks?
Geographic protections, .norfolk - does that refer to the county in the UK or to one of the places in the US, or else where?
[+] [-] tankenmate|14 years ago|reply
Trademark protections come in three parts. At the top level a trademark holder can object to you applying for a TLD that is an exact match for a trademark they hold in any jurisdiction. There are provision for trademark front running as well here. At the second level registries are required to provide protection for trademark holders both at registry start up (sunrise and landrush) as well as for ongoing operations. The protections during sunrise and landrush are stronger than during ongoing operations.
During sunrise and landrush registries are required to restrict registrations that are an exact match to marks in the trademark clearing house. They are also required to implement the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) during sunrise and landrush and the first 60 days of general availability. There is also a requirement for the UDRP for ongoing operations but this is almost exactly the same for other existing gTLDs (ccTLDs are a different matter).
Obviously there are corner cases to the above and there are a large number of details involved. If you want more information a good starting point is the Applicant Guidebook which you can get from this link:
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb
EDIT: added information about UDRP.
[+] [-] icebraining|14 years ago|reply
Not true, and you can see it yourself:
http://ac/
http://ai/
http://tm/
Nothing technically prevents a TLD from having an A record, it's just uncommon. So there could very well be http://microsoft/ or http://apple/, which would appear as "microsoft" and "apple" in FF and Chrome, at least.
[+] [-] regularjack|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tankenmate|14 years ago|reply
You should also note that email addresses that doesn't have a '.' in the host part are technically invalid, i.e. me@mytld is not a valid fully qualified email address.