K A S H R U T . C O M_©

The following news is from the Domains Name Wire and Jewish Journal posted on January 28, 2014.

Dot-Specific domain names are being assigned on the web. OK-Kosher applied in November 2012 to manage the .kosher gTLD. The OU, Star-K, Kof-K, Chicago Rabbinical Council and the COR filed a complaint in March, e013 that "OK-Kosher might use its control over the .kosher string to attain an unfair competitive advantage in the market for kosher certification services." The Jewish Journal reported that Rabbi Elefant said: "If one kosher certifying agency has control over which businesses could obtain web addresses ending in .kosher, Elefant said, any business that wanted to have such a presence on the web would be forced to sign up with OK-Kosher."
"On Jan. 14, 2014, an expert working for the International Chamber of Commerce, Luca G. Radicati di Brozolo, a law professor at the Catholic University of Milan, rebuffed their objection, and awarded the right to manage “.kosher” to a subsidiary of OK-Kosher called Kosher Marketing Assets, LLC. Luca G. Radicati di Brozolo said that the complaintants “has not convincingly proven its claim that the Application will impact negatively on itself, the community of [kosher certification organizations] or the broader community of persons or entities with a stake in kosher.”
"The expert adjudicator appeared to rely on assertions made by OK-Kosher that the gTLD will be used in ways that will benefit all kosher certification agencies.
The Jewish Journal quoted Timothy Lytton, a professor at Albany Law School and author of Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food saying that the .kosher disupte and ownership can tip the balance agencies have between rivalry and cooperation and that " that awarding control over .kosher to OK-Kosher could bring to the certification agency a difficult-to-quantify ancillary benefit, namely, increased internet traffic."

The following news is from the TheDomains.com and change.org posted on on July 17, 2013.

In a letter to ICANN, the OU, Star-K, cRc, Kof-K and COR, responsible for certification of approximately 63% of kosher ingredients worldwide, objected to the "unequal treatment of the new gTLD applications for .Kosher and .halal. Kosher Marketing Assets LLC of Brooklyn New York, whose mission of the .KOSHER TLD is to promote Kosher food certification in general, and OK Kosher Certification and its clients in particular has applied for the top level domain name .kosher. "In a letter to ICANN, several Kosher certification organizations, responsible for certification of approximately 63% of kosher ingredients worldwide, objected to the "unequal treatment of the new gTLD applications for .Kosher and .halal." ICANN has acknoledged to Saudi Arabia that they will not honor the application for the .halal and .islam names from a Shia group associated with Iran. The kashrus agencies are reminding ICANN that they should give .kosher the same consideration as .halal.

Ed. note: This will be decided in the following weeks
https://gtldcomment.icann.org is the website to comment on new GLDT applications.