Donuts appeals ridiculous .hospital objection

Fresh TLD applicant asks ICANN’s board to reconsider objection that killed .hospital.

A lot of fresh top level domain name applicants and objectors have filed reconsideration requests with ICANN following landing on the losing side of objections.

I stopped writing regarding these filings following the first few. They’re so plentiful as to no longer constitute “news.” Also, ICANN is rejecting all of the requests, so it seems like a futile practice.

But if there were ever a poster child case for which ICANN’s board ought to reconsider the panel’s decision, it would be the limited public interest objection against .hospital. This is a case where the majority of the panel clearly went outside the scope of guidelines for the type of objection, and that’s exactly the type of decision that ICANN ought to reconsider. This was not a case of merely differences of opinion; it was a case of the panel making up its own rules for whether a fresh TLD application ought to be granted.

I’ve detailed the panel’s errors here.

ICANN can overturn the panel’s decision and still not have to act on marginal cases it would rather leave alone.

I doubt ICANN’s board will grant Donuts’ request. But this is a case worth ICANN’s attention.