The fifty-first international meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) formally commences on Monday, October 13, 2014, in Los Angeles, marking what will likely be the most well-attended North American ICANN meeting. As always, several high-profile topics have emerged amidst community discussions leading up to this meeting, all of which are relevant to registry operators, new generic top-level domain (gTLD) applicants and brand owners alike.

1. Two-Character Names and Geographic Names -

Several ongoing initiatives continue to percolate within ICANN with respect to geographic names. First, more and more new gTLD registry operators, including .Brand TLD operators, are applying to release two-character domain names through the Registry Services Evaluation Process (RSEP), some even including names that coincide with country codes, such as CA.TLD or UK.TLD, in order to offer geo-targeted content to consumers. All such RSEP requests have effectively been placed on hold by ICANN pending community discussions with, and advice from, the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) in Los Angeles.