On May 30, 2025, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) published the draft Applicant Guidebook (AGB) for the second round of its New gTLD Program for public comment. Its publication marks a significant milestone, as it represents the culmination of more than 10 years of studies, debate, and policy work by the ICANN community, and creates a foundation for the next round.
What is the Applicant Guidebook?
The draft AGB is a 395-page runbook for the second round of the New gTLD Program, which covers:
- Who can apply for a generic top-level domain (gTLD)
- Financial qualification
- Fees
- Requirements by gTLD type, i.e., standard or open TLDs, community-based TLDs, and .BRANDs
- Objection and contention processes
- Rights protection mechanisms
- Applicant and application evaluation criteria
- Auction procedures (if required)
- The contract successful applicants will need to sign with ICANN
- Timelines for delegation
- Ongoing operational, technical and compliance obligations.
The AGB is comprehensive and filled with learnings from round one of the New gTLD Program.
What’s new for round two?
For those considering applying for a .BRAND TLD in round two, there are some key differences between the AGB from round one and round two’s AGB, which I summarize below.
1. Fees and potential refunds
The base application fee is now $227,000 per gTLD application—up from $185,000 in round one—with an additional evaluation fee of $500 per application for a .BRAND TLD. These fees are subject to change following public comments, but the current fee structure is based on cost-recovery financial modeling, assuming 1,000 gTLD applications in round two. (ICANN received 1,930 applications for 1,409 unique strings in round one).
Refunds are possible, but only in specific circumstances, and most refunds will be partial and differ based on the timing of the refund scenario. For instance, if an applicant decides to voluntarily withdraw its application between ICANN’s receipt of its gTLD evaluation fee and 10 days after string confirmation day, it will be eligible for a 65% refund of the paid gTLD evaluation fee. Later voluntary withdrawals reduce the amount of eligible refunds to 35% and 20%, again based on the stage of the evaluation process in which the applicant retracts their application.
2. String requirements and replacement strings
The table below outlines the requirements the gTLD string must meet to be considered, dependent of whether they are ASCII (English character) gTLDs or Internationalized Domain Name (IDN, or non-English character, e.g., Arabic, Chinese, or Japanese) gTLDs.
| Script type | Character length | Contain letters A-Z | Contain numbers | Contain hyphens | Contain special characters (&, #, @, etc.) |
| ASCII | 3-63 characters | Yes | No | No | No |
| IDN | 3-63 characters | n/a | Yes, but string mustn’t be all numbers | Yes, but cannot appear as first or last character of string | No |
For both ASCII and IDN strings, ICANN will reject applications for blocked names, but applications for reserved names may be permitted as an exception. There are additional requirements for strings representing a geographic name. Furthermore, .BRAND strings must be trademarked, and can’t be generic strings, like .FURNITURE, .SHOE, .TREE, etc.
New for round two is the opportunity for all applicants to include a potential replacement string as part of the initial application to avoid contention before the list of applied for strings is finalized. Following reveal day, applicants will have 14 days—aka the replacement period—to notify ICANN if they’d like to use their replacement string (provided it’s not identical to the applied for or replacement string of another applicant) instead of the original string. Importantly, those who opt to use a replacement string can’t revert to the original string and may still be placed in contention at a later stage of the application process.
3. Prioritization draw
Round two features a prioritization draw, which is a randomized process that assigns a priority number to each application to ensure every application has an equal chance of progressing. Round one’s prioritization draw wasn’t part of the AGB and was created in response to ICANN receiving more applications than expected. The prioritization draw is a live event during which each application entered has a physical paper ticket drawn manually from the pool of participating applications and gets assigned a priority number. Participation is optional and carries a fee.
Entries into the prioritization draw will be randomly drawn in groups of 500 until all applications receive a priority number. IDN applications will be prioritized. After the prioritization draw, any applications not entered will then also receive a priority number via the same process.
Priority numbers will determine the general order of the release of evaluation results and execution of base registry agreements with ICANN. Once assigned, an application’s priority number won’t change, and can’t be transferred between applicants or applications.
4. Brand string change request
A brand string change request allows applicants for .BRAND TLDs the opportunity to further change the string for which they initially applied to avoid contention resolution procedures. These can be submitted in the 30 days following:
- The formation of contention sets after string similarity evaluation, or
- The publication of a string confusion objection expert determination, or
- Appellate expert determination involving the application subject to the brand string change request.
The change must add one or more words to the applied for string, and the additional word or words:
- Must be added to the original string
- Must appear in the description of goods and services of the applicant’s trademark registration or equivalent document in the applicant’s jurisdiction, submitted by the applicant in support of its application for a .BRAND TLD.
- Must not be a translation of words contained in the trademark registration
The new string also must not create or expand a contention set. If the new string passes string evaluation, the application will be subject to an additional period for objections, application comments, and singular or plural notifications.
5. No private resolutions
During round one, many believed there were applicants that applied for a gTLD hoping to be in a contention set with multiple applicants for the same string so they could be bought out and turn a profit for merely preparing an application. In round two, all forms of private resolution of contention sets—including private auctions and post-application joint ventures—are prohibited. Applicants for strings in the same contention set are strictly prohibited from communicating directly or indirectly with other applicants, as well as sharing any information about their applications for contested strings with other applicants. The AGB details the timing and duration of this prohibition, including the limited exceptions. ICANN may act against applicants for violating these rules, with penalties including disqualification from future New gTLD Program rounds, among others.
What’s next?
Once the public comment period ends in July 2025, ICANN will summarize comments into a report by the end of August, which will then be made publicly available and provided to the Subsequent Procedures Implementation Review Team (IRT), the working group responsible for authoring the draft AGB. The IRT will review the comments, decide on any changes to be made, and seek the ICANN Board’s review and final approval of the AGB. For the application window to open in April 2026, the final AGB must be approved and publicly available no later than December 31, 2025.
Stay up to date with CSC
Stay abreast of all updates around ICANN’s New gTLD Program with CSC:
- Join our webinar on July 8, 2025: Applying for a Dot Brand TLD—Five Takeaways from the Applicant Guidebook.
- Look out for part two of this blog, Understanding ICANN’s Draft Applicant Guidebook: Next Steps for Prospective Dot Brand Applicants.
- Sign up for our .BRAND mailing list for updates on ICANN’s New gTLD Program direct to your inbox.