.hospital

Overview

• .hospital is a proposed generic top-level domain (gTLD) submitted under ICANN's New gTLD Program.
• Applicant recorded in the application materials is Donuts (Ruby Pike, LLC). The application template also lists "Demand Media" in the registry field.
• Intended general use: a health-related namespace aimed at hospitals, medical treatment centers and related organizations to facilitate search, identity and information sharing online.

History

• The .hospital string was applied for during ICANN's New gTLD application round (Reveal Day referenced in June 2012 in source material).
• ICANN's Independent Objector (IO) filed both a Community Objection and a Limited Public Interest (LPI) objection against the application.
• An expert panel (ICC/ICANN dispute process) upheld the IO's LPI objection for .hospital, finding heightened sensitivity because unreliable health-related information can cause serious harm and that a market-oriented approach could increase that risk.
• ICANN's Board Governance Committee (BGC) declined the applicant's request for reconsideration (decision dated 5 February 2014).
• On 3 February 2016 the ICANN Board decided to have the case reheard by a new three-person panel, noting concerns about consistency with other health-related LPI determinations.
• A Community Objection was also filed by the American Hospital Association; that objection and the IO's community objection were terminated prior to expert determination.

Usage and Audience

• The applicant described the target registrant community broadly and inclusively, listing potential users such as:
  • hospitals and health care institutions
  • teaching hospitals and university medical centers
  • charitable organizations and fundraising efforts related to hospitals
  • medical practitioners and administrators
  • insurers and related health service providers
  • animal hospitals
  • organizations or individuals involved in hospital support, expression or information-sharing

Registration Rules

• The applicant (Donuts) proposed an open, inclusive registration policy:
  • No entity or group would have exclusive rights to second-level names.
  • Donuts opposed eligibility limits based solely on identity, arguing such limits would deny legitimate registrants access.
  • The application committed to an array of protections against abuse, including measures to protect trademark rights and reduce fraud and abuse relative to incumbent TLDs.
• The application emphasized operating the TLD in a secure, shared-resources model backed by funding and operational experience. Specific technical details (allowed characters, minimum/maximum registration periods) were not provided in the summarized material.

SEO and Brand Impact

• The .hospital string was treated as especially sensitive during dispute proceedings because of potential risks to public health and safety if misleading or fraudulent sites used the namespace.
• The expert panel highlighted that human life and health impose greater duties of care than many other commercial sectors, and that unreliable health information in an emergency can cause serious harm.
• Concerns centered on trustworthiness and the risk that a market-oriented or permissive registration policy could increase misuse; the applicant argued protections and abuse-mitigation would address those risks.

Notable Cases or Examples

• The Independent Objector's Limited Public Interest objection to .hospital was one of the few health-related LPI objections upheld by an expert panel under the ICC/ICANN dispute process.
• Key administrative actions in the dispute timeline include:
  • Expert determination upholding the IO's LPI objection (ICC panel decision referenced as EXP/412/... in source material).
  • BGC decision on 5 February 2014 not to reverse the expert determination.
  • ICANN Board decision on 3 February 2016 to rehear the matter with a new three-person panel.
• A Community Objection by the American Hospital Association was filed and subsequently terminated prior to expert determination.

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

domain:       HOSPITAL

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.HOSPITAL 2a01:8840:16:0:0:0:0:29 65.22.20.29
nserver:      V0N1.NIC.HOSPITAL 2a01:8840:17:0:0:0:0:29 65.22.21.29
nserver:      V0N2.NIC.HOSPITAL 2a01:8840:18:0:0:0:0:29 65.22.22.29
nserver:      V0N3.NIC.HOSPITAL 161.232.10.29 2a01:8840:f4:0:0:0:0:29
nserver:      V2N0.NIC.HOSPITAL 2a01:8840:19:0:0:0:0:29 65.22.23.29
nserver:      V2N1.NIC.HOSPITAL 161.232.11.29 2a01:8840:f5:0:0:0:0:29
ds-rdata:     53629 8 2 5ce9ea127a6a20ba0171a93b41716dc419367affe7b5d9445ceb1c4c3a8252bf

whois:        whois.nic.hospital

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

created:      2016-12-02
changed:      2023-09-13
source:       IANA