Early Warning Report

What Does the Early Warning Report Service Do?

• •
  Identifies potential contention sets at two critical junctures:

  • ◦Before the application window closes; and
  • ◦After the application window closes but before Reveal Day
• •
  Gives participants the ability to:

  • ◦Make strategic application decisions based on more data
  • ◦Anonymously contact other applicants interested in the same or similar strings likely to be in contention
• •This information can enable applicants to avoid contention and ICANN auctions by either changing strings or attempting to resolve the potential contention before the ICANN prohibition on private resolution begins at Reveal Day

Why is the Early Warning Report Service Needed?

• •
  The upcoming round is different - No private auctions for strings in contention

  • ◦In the first round of new gTLD applications, if there was more than one application for the same string (and those deemed too similar), they were put in a contention set
  • ◦The applicants then had the option of resolving the contention set privately, including through private auctions where the losers shared the winning bid, or joint ventures, or through an auction of last resort operated by ICANN where ICANN kept the auction proceeds
• •
  How it Works Now

  • ◦ICANN has prohibited all private resolution of contention sets after Reveal Day (the day that ICANN reveals all of the strings that have been applied for)
  • ◦Once Reveal Day occurs, any applicant who is in contention for their string will only have three choices:

This leaves every potential applicant with the same question: "What is the likelihood that my application will end up in contention?" The answer was always the same: there is no way to know - until now.

With the Early Warning Report Service, those considering applying for new gTLDs in the upcoming round will have previously unavailable insight into the likelihood that their desired string will end up in contention. This gives Early Warning Report participants more information and options than other applicants and enables them to pivot strategically and either change to a different string or to resolve the potential contention with other applicants before submitting an application or before Reveal Day.

Applicants now have the choice of going in blind and risking their application fee and more, or doing so armed with additional information.