Public Comment Period Extended

ICANN announced today that the new gTLD Public Comment period has been extended until September 26, 2012. This means that members of the public have an additional 45 days to submit comments on new gTLD applications with ICANN’s assurance that those comments will reach new gTLD application evaluators.

So far, 5,636 comments have been submitted in the eight weeks since the Public Comment period opened on June 13, Reveal Day. Over half of the total number of comments were submitted in August alone, meaning that we could see a good deal of activity in the coming 45 days.

As background, the Public Comment forum will remain open through the entire duration of new gTLD evaluation, but only those comments posted during the ICANN-sanctioned Public Comment period (now June 13 to September 27) will be directed to ICANN’s Evaluation Panels and taken into consideration during Initial Evaluation. Members of the public can submit comments as they please, but they can also submit comments on any application on the basis of one of the four official objection grounds enumerated in the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook: String Confusion, Legal Rights, Limited Public Interest, and Community. However, ICANN has stated that comments submitted on objection grounds will not be considered as formal objections, and they will not prevent an application from proceeding to evaluation.

You can access the Public Comment forum to submit a comment (you need to create a user account first) or just see what others are saying here.