ShortDot recently announced the acquisition of their new .BOND gTLD, which used to be a dot-brand gTLD owned by the private Bond University in Australia. Ever since purchasing it in 2014, the university has failed to find a use for the domain.
This is not an isolated case – some 50 companies and organizations have already terminated their contracts with ICANN, letting the acquired domains sink into oblivion. Bond University, however, chose another way by managing to find a buyer for their domain. The word “bond” itself is not the protected name of a brand, but rather a common term that has quite a number of meanings, such as certain types of securities, financial bonds offered by companies, and so forth. Moreover, the domain may potentially be of use to the many fans of the James Bond 007 franchise.
Evidently, these were the reasons that convinced the ShortDot registry to purchase the domain. Today, the company is negotiating the status of the domain with ICANN in order to make the registration of names within the gTLD open for everyone, Domain Incite reports. ShortDot co-founder Kevin Kopas stated that the annual fee for purchasing .BOND names was to be between $5 and $10. The 60-day sunrise period is expected to open on July 9.
