Contracting & the Registry Agreement

Contracting is a process by which eligible applicants enter into a Registry Agreement ("RA") with ICANN to operate the applied-for TLD. This process commences once the applicant successfully meets all of the following New gTLD Program requirements:

Once an applicant is eligible to commence the contracting process, ICANN will notify the applicant's primary contact via the Naming Services portal. Notifications are sent by prioritization number. Included with the notification is a CIR Form that requests for certain information needed for drafting of the RA. It is important that applicants complete and submit the CIR Form promptly upon notification to avoid missing the 9-month deadline to execute a Registry Agreement. As per Section 5.1 of the Applicant Guidebook, "Eligible applicants are expected to have executed the registry agreement within nine (9) months of the notification date. Failure to do so may result in loss of eligibility, at ICANN's discretion." The Applicant Guidebook also provides for applicants to request an extension to the 9-month window to execute the Registry Agreement if the applicant "can demonstrate, to ICANNs reasonable satisfaction, that it is working diligently and in good faith toward successfully completing the steps necessary for entry into the registry agreement." To request for an extension, the contracting point of contact should complete and submits the Request for Extension to Execute Registry Agreement Form [DOCX, 565 KB].

To help applicants prepare for completion and submission of the CIR Form, ICANN has provided the following information:

Contracting will be completed once the RA is executed and the applicant will proceed to the next phase of Transition to Delegation known as Pre-Delegation Testing. Below is an overview of the contracting process. The graphic depicts a best-case scenario where there are no issues with the application. The cycle time is subject to change if volume of CIR response exceeds 40 per week. Please note that the below cycle time does not apply to applications that have been granted an extension to execute the Registry Agreement. For those applications that have been granted an extension to execute the Registry Agreement, ICANN will abide by the timelines provided in the extension notifications.

Contracting Cycle Chart

Contracting Deadlines and Extensions

On 3 September 2014, ICANN published a "Requests for Extension to Execute New gTLD Registry Agreements" announcement. This announcement re-emphasizes that eligible applicants are expected to execute the Registry Agreement within nine (9) months of the notification date. Applicants must submit extension requests at least 45 days prior to the original deadline date to be eligible for an extension. If an extension request is not submitted by the deadline, the applicant will not be granted an extension and will be expected to execute the Registry Agreement by the original deadline.

Scenario 1: No responses to the CIR received 3 weeks prior to the Registry Agreement execution deadline, and no extensions have been granted.

If no extensions have been granted and the applicant does not submit a response to the CIR 3 weeks prior to the Registry Agreement execution deadline, it must execute the Registry Agreement by the Registry Agreement execution deadline. To provide applicants under this scenario the ability to execute the Registry Agreement by the deadline date, ICANN will send eligible applicants the base Registry Agreement 2 weeks prior to the deadline date to execute the Registry Agreement.

Scenario 2: The applicant requests an extension to execute the Registry Agreement.

Applicants should demonstrate, to ICANN's reasonable satisfaction, that it is working diligently and in good faith toward successfully completing the steps necessary for entry into the registry agreement. Applicants provided with any extension shall meet interim milestone deadlines based on the activities that need to be completed. All applicants who have been granted an extension must execute the Registry Agreement by the extended deadline, or risk losing eligibility to execute the Registry Agreement with ICANN. In addition, applicants that fail to meet interim milestone deadlines will be at risk of losing eligibility to execute the Registry Agreement with ICANN. If an applicant loses eligibility to execute the Registry Agreement with ICANN, the status of its application will be changed to "Will Not Proceed."

Registry Agreement

The Registry Agreement is the formal written and binding agreement between the applicant and ICANN that sets forth the rights, duties, liabilities and obligations of the applicant as a Registry Operator. Applicants may elect to negotiate the terms of the RA by exception, but this course of action will take substantially longer to complete the Contracting process.

Specification 13

On 26 March 2014, by the New gTLD Program Committee ("NGPC") of the ICANN Board passed a resolution approving a Registry Agreement Specification 13 for Brand category of applicants. One provision of Specification 13 gives a .BRAND registry operator the ability to designate up to three ICANN accredited registrars to serve as the exclusive registrars for their TLD. When the NGPC approved Specification 13 on 26 March 2014, implementation of this provision was delayed for 45 days in respect of the GNSO policy Recommendation 19 on the Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains. After considering the matter, the GNSO Council informed ICANN in correspondence dated 9 May 2014 [PDF, 366 KB] that although it found that the proposed provision was inconsistent with Recommendation 19, given the unique and specific circumstances, the GNSO Council accepted the variation from the original policy, did not object to the adoption of Specification 13 in its entirety, and so indicated in the form of a motion vote on and passed at the GNSO Council meeting of 8 May 2014. Specification 13 was not finalized until May 9, 2014. Subsequently, as a result of the 2017 Global Amendment, the current form of Specification 13 is effective 31 July 2017.

Specification 13 provides certain modifications to the RA for those applicants that qualify as a .Brand TLD. These requirements include:

Registry operators that want to qualify as a .Brand TLD and receive a Specification 13 to the RA may submit an application for Specification 13 to ICANN. ICANN posts all applications for Specification 13 for comment for 30 days. All input received will be taken into consideration. If a Specification 13 is granted, it will include an exemption to the Registry Operator Code of Conduct.

Registry Operator Code of Conduct

The Registry Operator Code of Conduct is a set of guidelines for registry operators relating to certain and limited operations of the registry. All registry operators are subjected to the Code of Conduct unless an exemption is granted to the registry operator by ICANN. In order to qualify for an exemption to the Code of Conduct, the TLD must not be a "generic string" (as defined in Section 3(d) of Specification 11) and the following criteria must be satisfied:

Registry operators that want to be exempted from the Code of Conduct may submit a request for exemption to the Code of Conduct to ICANN. ICANN posts all requests for exemption to the Code of Conduct for comment for 30 days. All input received will be taken into consideration.

A clause providing an exemption to the Code of Conduct is included in the provisions of Specification. Thus, any registry operator applying for a Specification 13 to the RA need not separately apply for an exemption to the Code of Conduct.

Application Eligibility Reinstatement

Application Eligibility Reinstatement is a process that allows applicants with applications in a "Will Not Proceed" status because a contracting related deadline was missed to request reinstatement of the application's eligibility status. If eligibility reinstatement is granted, the applicant may proceed to signing the Registry Agreement with ICANN provided the application meets all Program requirements.

ICANN will notify applicants that are qualified to request reinstatement of eligibility status of their applications via the Naming Services portal (referenced as Application Eligibility Notification). Generally, ICANN will notify the applicant within one week of the application status being changed to "Will Not Proceed." Upon notification, applicants may request reinstatement of their applications' eligibility by submitting the Application Eligibility Reinstatement Request form. Requests must be submitted by the deadline communicated to the applicant in the Application Eligibility Notification to be considered.

To ensure applicants are committed to signing the Registry Agreement and to delegate the TLD within 12 months of the Effective Date of the Registry Agreement, applicants will be required to provide: