ICANN And Nominet Formalise Relationship

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

05 July 2006

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced last week that it has signed an exchange of letters with United Kingdom country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) manager, Nominet.

This demonstrates a willingness to develop cooperation between ICANN and Nominet, the registry responsible for the United Kingdom ccTLD .uk. Nominet has become the seventh registry to formalize its relationship with ICANN in the past two months.

Nominet will also be joining ICANN's country code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) to ensure that the .uk domain name space is represented in the global Internet arena.

Commenting on the letter exchange with Nominet, Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN announced:

"We are pleased that this exchange of letters has taken place, reinforcing the continuing momentum of ICANN and its ever strengthening relationships with Internet registries."

"The new Accountability Framework program will streamline the process of formalising relationships with ICANN and we expect that more ccTLD managers will make use of these mechanisms in the near future".

Lesley Cowley, Nominet's Chief Executive added:

"We have been encouraged by the steps that ICANN has taken recently to improve its models of engagement with the Internet community. Whilst there is still work to do, we are confident that it is moving in the right direction and we are keen to provide support."

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