Due to the many groups that did not attend this month's ICANN meeting in Nairobi for various reasons,  I don't think anyone expected the meeting to result in major decisions on new TLD issues we've been debating for over a year.  However, that is exactly what happened.

The proposed Expressions of Interest (EOI)
Going into the ICANN meeting, many expected the EOI process to be approved. The EOI would have required interested new TLD applicants to confirm their interest and place a $55,000 deposit against their new TLD application. Over the course of the meeting, however, a number of groups expressed concerns that the EOI would in effect be a pre-application process that would preclude future applicants from getting a shot at their TLD. After listening to feedback from the community, the ICANN Board dismissed the EOI process in favor of just proceeding with the round.

From Afilias' perspective, we think this decision was wise because it will accelerat the nTLD launch process by re-focusing the community on resolving the remaining issues instead of debating an entirely new process.  Further, ICANN can now work on increasing awareness of the opportunity so that when the round does open,  more entities will feel informed and ready to commit.

Vertical Integration
The ICANN board elected to maintain today's registry and registrar separation requirements that prevent a registry from acting as a registrar in a TLD that it also operates. This separation policy has historically provided important consumer protections and safeguarded the current fair marketplace.  Rather than rushing into a significant rules change, ICANN is following its "bottoms up" mandate by allowing the GNSO PDP process to complete.  The PDP process allows for full discussion of the pros and cons and generally enables community consensus to become clear.

Trademark protection
Most of the trademark issues either have been resolved or are close to resolution. Key intellectual property protection mechanisms will include: a centralized trademark clearinghouse which will validate trademarks and provide data for pre-launch or sunrise services; a uniform rapid suspension (URS) process that will enable trademark holders to quickly suspend any infringing registrations; and guidelines for addressing malicious conduct.  

Security 
The concept of a High Security Zone (HSZ) is being refined through the work of an advisory group. In effect, this would give HSZ registries a trust seal if they adhere to higher security standards for operating their registry and potentially compel registrars to verify registrant data.  In addition to this security discussion, various zone file access models are currently being reviewed.

Root Zone Scaling 
ICANN completed the Root Zone Scaling study and expects reports from the SSAC and RSSAC soon. In addition, a model is being developed to assess the impact on the Root of varying numbers of new TLDs over various time frames.

Economic impact 
ICANN has retained various consultants to assess the economic implications of a new TLD round, including defensive registration costs and assessments of the overall economic benefit to the Internet community. Final findings on this issue have yet to be issued.

new TLD character format
ICANN has been working for some time on introducing internationalized domain names at the top-level (otherwise known as IDN.IDN). ICANN is moving cautiously here to avoid any issues with variants that might cause collisions in the DNS.  While the applications for countries are on a separate fast-track process, new TLD applicants may also apply for their new TLD in an IDN string, or the IDN equivalent(s) to the ASCII string they are proposing. The burden will be on the applicant to document any variant issues and address them before delegation will be permitted.  As part of the new TLD process, ICANN will also consider 2-character TLDs in certain circumstances (relaxing the historical 3 character minimum restriction), but one character TLDs will be prohibited for the time being.

We can expect a lot of work to be done between now and the next ICANN meeting in Brussels this June on the subject of new TLDs.  The key take away, however, is that the process is nearly final.  Therefore, if you are going to apply for a new TLD, now is the time to formalize your plans and select your registry and DNS provider.