ICANN Free to Proceed with the Delegation of .AFRICA Following Court Decision

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that a California Superior Court has denied DotConnectAfrica’s (DCA’s) second Motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop the delegation of the .AFRICA generic top-level domain (gTLD) to ZA Central Registry (ZACR).  DCA’s first Motion for Preliminary Injunction was denied by the Superior Court in December 2016.

Among other things, the Judge found that it appears the "Covenant Not to Sue" found in the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook is enforceable, citing to the recent Federal District Court Order in the Ruby Glen, LLC v ICANN matter, wherein the Court held that the “covenant not to sue” in the Guidebook is enforceable.  Accordingly, the Superior Court Judge ruled that “DCA's claims against ICANNfor fraud and unfair business practices are likely to be barred.  As a result, DCA cannot establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits.”

View the Court Order on the ICANN Blog.

In accordance with the terms of its Registry Agreement with ZACR for .AFRICA, ICANNwill now follow its normal processes towards delegation.

Culled from ICANN Blog.

.Ng Awards: NiRA Calls For Entries

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association [NIRA], a not-for-profit organisation that is charged with the management of Nigeria's country code top level domain name [.ng ccTLD] is calling for entries into the second edition of the “.ng Awards"

This was disclosed at a recent press conference organised by NiRA in Lagos where modalties of the 2017 .ng award and recognition, highlights of the MoU between AFRINIC and NiRA Academy as well as the MoU between Kenya [.Ke] and Nigeria [.Ng] registries were discussed.

Focusing on this year’s competition, NiRA noted that the awards and recognition seeks to focus on 18 different categories based on the criteria that; the Company, organization or individual must have registered and is doing business with a .ng domain name, the Domain name must have been registered for over 6months, the website associated with the domain name must be active on the Internet.

According to the President NiRA, Rev. Sunday Olakunle Folayemi, the award seeks to identify and encourage organizations, individual and brands that has actively promoted the safe use of internet to help stimulate the safe, responsible and positive use of the Internet for Nigerians in 18 categories.

The Grand Prize for each category winners award is total package access to .ng Awards Icon, available in various sizes and various formats for inclusion on their websites and marketing collateral.

A jury has been set up for this process headed by Mr. Shina Badaru, NiRA Board of Trustees and voting process ends April 3, 2017.

As part of the selection process, the public are encouraged to adopt the voting style which had been made open since February 20. For this process,  out of the 100% mark, voting for nominees by the general public will be earned 40% of the total voting score, while the Jury vote carries 60% of the total voting score.

Categories cut across; .ng Company of the Year, Most Innovative Online Service Company, Best Banking Website/Portal, Best Insurance Company Website/Portal, Best E-payment Website/Portal, Best Tertiary Institution website/portal, Best Secondary School website/portal, Best Primary School website/portal, Startup Company of the year, Best Local Hosting Company, The .ng Media Award -Best Print Media Website, Best Online Media Website, Best Electronic Media Website (Television), Best Electronic Media Website (Radio).

Other categories also include; Most valuable Youth organization, Public Sector Star Website Award, E-Government Star Website Award, Digital innovation in State Government, Digital innovation in Federal Government and Digital innovation in Local Government.

For further information and voting process, the general public are encouraged to read full details via http://www.nira.org.ng/voting

By Adenike Fagbemi