.JOBS TLD Dispute with ICANN Dismissed

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has announced its formal withdrawal of the February 2011 Notice of Breach against Employ Media, the registry operator of .JOBS, and confirmed that Employ Media is in good standing. Accordingly, Employ Media has dismissed arbitration proceedings with ICANN.

“Resolution of this dispute with ICANN gives us, the .JOBS Universe and those registering existing and future .JOBS domains the ability to move forward with business certainty.”

This settlement brings to a close the dispute between the two parties regarding how non-company names (such as geographic, occupation, and dictionary terms) in .JOBS are registered and used. In 2011, Employ Media accepted proposals from various parties to launch web sites using geographic and occupation names in the intuitive .JOBS suffix.

One such party is the DirectEmployers Association, a nonprofit HR consortium of leading employers including over 600 Global 5000 companies. DirectEmployers launched the .JOBS Universe, in which over 120,000 employers list, free of charge, over 1.2 million jobs daily. Sites in the .JOBS Universe take the form of geographic and occupational names such as www.atlanta.jobs, www.nursing.jobs and www.atlantanursing.jobs.

At www.US.jobs, each of the 50 US state governments, along with Guam and Puerto Rico, list jobs local to their region providing for the first time a method for medium and small employers to publish and mass distribute their job listings on the Internet at no charge.

Some from the job board industry complained to ICANN that non-company names, such as the .JOBS Universe, should not be allowed to function on the Internet as job boards which led to the formal dispute. The terms of the settlement agreement dismiss this complaint.

“I am particularly pleased that ICANN has agreed that we are in full compliance as the registry operator of .JOBS,” states Tom Embrescia, Chairman and CEO of Employ Media and .JOBS. “Resolution of this dispute with ICANN gives us, the .JOBS Universe and those registering existing and future .JOBS domains the ability to move forward with business certainty.”

There are two classes of domain name registration in .JOBS: Company names such as www.att.jobs and www.nissan.jobs and non-company names such as www.US.jobs, www.marketing.jobs and www.veterans.jobs. Companies are able to apply for their company name directly through their .JOBS registrar. Non-company names have been periodically allocated by Request for Proposal (RFP), such as the process in 2011 that produced the .JOBS Universe by DirectEmployers Association.

“We continue to receive a tremendous amount of interest for geographic, occupation and dictionary names from around the world,” Mr. Embrescia explains. “We are pleased to announce opening a new RFP round in January, 2013 with details to follow.” Those seeking further information are encouraged to contact Employ Media or visit www.RFP.jobs which will be updated in the coming weeks.

About .JOBS

Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the .JOBS TLD is one of 22 generic TLD’s under agreement with ICANN. Launched in 2006, the .JOBS TLD is established to serve the needs of the International Human Resource Management Community and sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).