.city

Overview

• .city is a proposed generic top-level domain (gTLD) submitted under ICANN's New gTLD Program.
• It is classified on ICANNWiki as a Generic gTLD in the "Culture" category.

History

• The string .city was applied for by multiple applicants during ICANN's New gTLD round.
• Current/winning applicant: Donuts (Snow Sky, LLC). Donuts filed hundreds of gTLD applications (307 via separate LLCs) and partnered with Demand Media for backend registry services. Donuts submitted a Public Interest Commitment (PIC) for the string.
• Previous applicants included Radix (Dot City Inc.) and TLD Registry Limited. Radix had partnered with ARI Registry Services for backend services.
• Contention among applicants was resolved by a private auction administered by Applicant Auction in April 2014; Radix and TLD Registry withdrew after the auction and Donuts won the rights to the string.
• The TLD was listed as "Proposed" on ICANNWiki (not shown as delegated or implemented in the provided content).

Usage and Audience

• On ICANNWiki the .city entry is placed in the "Culture" category for new gTLDs.
• The available source information focuses on applicants, contention and policy issues rather than published registration or targeting rules.

SEO and Brand Impact

• The .city string has been the subject of brand/confusion concerns tied to the Citigroup trademark for "Citi". Citigroup (owner of the .citi mark) filed comments asserting that .citi and .city were not confusingly similar, but in several past UDRP cases Citigroup successfully argued that the two words were confusingly similar; those UDRP outcomes led to suspension of domain names using "city" in a manner similar to Citigroup trademarks.
• The presence of high-profile objections and GAC Early Warnings (see below) are relevant to brand risk and trust considerations for the string.
• Donuts submitted a Public Interest Commitment (PIC), which registrants and observers can review as part of assessing policies and protections for the string.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Citigroup / .citi: Citigroup commented on the .city application and related trademark/confusion issues. Past UDRP decisions referenced in the source found "city" and "citi" confusingly similar in some contexts, affecting domain suspensions.
• GAC Early Warnings: Germany issued Early Warnings to all three applicants for .city; Australia issued Early Warnings to the Radix (Dot City Inc.) and Donuts (Snow Sky, LLC) applications. Radix additionally received an Early Warning related to inclusion of an email address associated with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in application correspondence.
• Private auction (April 2014): Contention among applicants was settled via a private auction administered by Applicant Auction; Donuts emerged as the winner and other applicants withdrew.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       CITY

organisation: Binky Moon, LLC
address:      c/o Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)

contact:      administrative
name:         Vice President, Engineering
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldadmin@identity.digital

contact:      technical
name:         Senior Director, DNS Infrastructure Group
organisation: Identity Digital Limited
address:      10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 750
address:      Bellevue WA 98004
address:      United States of America (the)
phone:        +1.425.298.2200
fax-no:       +1.425.671.0020
e-mail:       tldtech@identity.digital

nserver:      V0N0.NIC.CITY 2a01:8840:1a:0:0:0:0:4 65.22.24.4
nserver:      V0N1.NIC.CITY 2a01:8840:1b:0:0:0:0:4 65.22.25.4
nserver:      V0N2.NIC.CITY 2a01:8840:1c:0:0:0:0:4 65.22.26.4
nserver:      V0N3.NIC.CITY 161.232.12.4 2a01:8840:f6:0:0:0:0:4
nserver:      V2N0.NIC.CITY 2a01:8840:1d:0:0:0:0:4 65.22.27.4
nserver:      V2N1.NIC.CITY 161.232.13.4 2a01:8840:f7:0:0:0:0:4
ds-rdata:     32800 8 2 10d3a1350cb71ffd64e8ab13da40cc6a697267ae989b92a8df1460c5afcdf87a

whois:        whois.nic.city

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://www.identity.digital/

created:      2014-07-03
changed:      2023-09-12
source:       IANA