21 December 2011

It is possible that a government may withdraw its support for an application. If this occurs before the end of the relevant evaluation period, a government could provide a letter revoking the previous documentation of support or non-opposition that was provided to ICANN.

Once a new gTLD is delegated and/or in operation, a government can also withdraw its previous documentation of support or non-opposition. This alone does not result in a transition of the gTLD to a new operator; however, as noted in section 7.13 of the registry agreement, ICANN will respect any order from a court of competent jurisdiction, including any orders from any jurisdiction where the consent or non-objection of the government was a requirement for the delegation of the TLD.

A transition of the gTLD to a new operator could take place based on a request from Registry Operator in accordance with section 7.5 of the registry agreement. The reason for such a request could arise from the applicant’s contractual arrangements with the government, but that would be a matter between the Registry Operator and the government.

DISCLAIMER: This material is for information only and does not represent of all requirements and criteria that the applicant must satisfy. ICANN is not providing legal, financial, business or any other kind of advice. This material does not represent a modification to the Applicant Guidebook, or the terms and conditions to the new gTLD program. This material also does not represent a waiver of any ICANN policy, procedure or agreement. In the event that any information provided in this material appears to be inconsistent with any information published elsewhere by ICANN, please do not rely on this email without confirmation or clarification from ICANN.