ICANN reported on November 13th that Add/Delete Grace Period (AGP) deletes are down by 84%. The bulk of AGP deletes have historically been associated with the practice of domain name tasting.
While opinions in the ICANN community differed on the actual impact of domain tasting, the Internet Commerce Association was a leader in calling upon ICANN to impose its registration fee as a curb to tasting practices. While opinions in the ICANN community differed on the actual overall impact of domain tasting, there were some unfortunate cases of trademark infringement by aggressive registrants. Regrettably, curbing tasting will not eliminate intentional infringement in domain name registrations, but ICA applauds the impact a curb on tasting can have on stopping deliberate intellectual property abuse.
ICA will continue to work with ICANN and others to find ways to combat abusers that specifically target trademarks, and to address other issues important to domain name registrants.