ICANN Name Collision List:  What is it and What are the Implications for You?

The quick and fast answer is that some highly desirable and valuable domain names will be released in accordance to some set rules.  Businesses looking to protect their brand and domain investors should stay informed of the release of name collision lists.

HEXONET continues to monitor the latest developments around name collision as it could have implications and opportunities for our customers. ICANN is now implementing a solution to allow new gTLD registries to release names from their Second-level Domain (SLD) Block Lists for registration while complying with all Rights Protection Mechanism requirements.

ICANN Definition and Information on Name Collison Lists:

A name collision occurs when an attempt to resolve a name used in a private name space (e.g. under a non-delegated Top-Level Domain, or a short, unqualified name) results in a query to the public Domain Name System (DNS). When the administrative boundaries of private and public namespaces overlap, name resolution may yield unintended or harmful results. Name collisions are not new. The introduction of any new domain name into the DNS, whether a generic TLD, country code TLD or second-level domain name, creates the potential for name collision. However, queries for un-delegated TLDs at the root level of the DNS have received renewed attention because certain applied-for new TLD strings could be identical to name labels used in private networks. A secure, stable and resilient Internet is ICANN's number one priority. For an analogy, consider calling for "Mary" in your office where there's only one "Mary", and then calling out "Mary" in a shopping mall and expecting that "office Mary" will respond."

Lets consider an example in the new TLD space.  Imagine that you run an international company and have a large subsidiary in Amsterdam.  You have set up an internal server for your Amsterdam-based IT employees with an internal host directing to:  abc.itdepartment.amsterdam   When the new geographic TLD .amsterdam launches, a 3rd party registers the domain itdepartment.amsterdam   Your employees’ Web browser is unclear as to where to send the request– to the internal server, or the external domain name. Simply put, the name collision results when strings used in private networks are identical to strings used in the public name space. Collisions in the DNS namespace have the potential to expose significant security-related issues for users of DNS.

In order to mitigate the risk of name collisions in new TLDs, ICANN has developed a comprehensive New gTLD Collision Occurrence Management Plan. Specifically, it has published a list of blocked domain names for each new TLD string that are determined to be a high risk of name collision. In the short term or indefinitely, specific domain names will not be permitted to be registered, to prevent the issue of name collision from occurring. In the scenario above, nobody could register itdepartment.amsterdam