Dear All, An action item from the 22 December 2009 ALAC meeting was for staff to provide you with information on whether the dotCAT amendment that was open for public comment between 18 December 2009 and 17 January 2010 was setting a precedent. Patrick Jones, Senior Manager, Continuity and Risk Management, has provided the following information on this issue: The issue of single and two-character names has come up several times before by gTLD registries. Each time a request is received from a registry, it is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, based on the specific facts raised in the request. ICANN has received requests on the following: Dot-NAME (2006, two-characters at the third-level only): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2006004 puntCAT (2007, limited release of UA, UB, UV.cat): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2007001 Dot-JOBS (2007, limited release of two-character names only): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2007002 Dot-Coop (2007, release of go.coop): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2007005 Dot-Pro (2008, release of three-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2008003 Dot-Coop (2008, one and two-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2008005 Dot-Mobi (2008, single character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2008006 Dot-BIZ (2008, one and two-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2008010 Dot-Mobi (2008, two-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2008011 Dot-Pro (2009, one, two, remaining three-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2009002 Dot-Travel (2009, one and two-character names - please note this is still pending): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2009003 PuntCAT (2009, one and two-character names): http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/#2009009 I'd be interested to know more about ALAC's potential questions or concerns. As you can see above, ICANN has deal with these types of requests quite frequently over the past three years. Patrick is happy to provide you with additional information on this issue and will be available to provide a briefing in Nairobi if requested. Kind regards, Heidi Heidi Ullrich Director for At-Large Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Telephone: + 1 (310) 578 - 8647 Fax: +1 (310) 823 - 8649 Cell/Mobile: +1 (310) 437 - 3956