.JOBS Top Level Domain Dispute With ICANN Dismissed

DirectEmployers Association to continue building-out the .JOBS Top Level Domain  

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has announced its formal withdrawal of a 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.

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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 with the intuitive .JOBS suffix.

DirectEmployers Association, a nonprofit Human Resource consortium of over 600 leading global employers, was selected through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process to build-out the .JOBS Universe, which now includes over 120,000 employers listing 1.2 million jobs daily. Sites in the .JOBS Universe are geographic and occupational names such as Atlanta.jobs, and Nursing.jobs and combinations such as AtlantaNursing.jobs.

The .JOBS Universe allows the National Labor Exchange (US.jobs), DirectEmployers Association's partnership with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA), and each of the 50 U.S. state workforce agencies, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico, to provide additional value to employers and job seekers using the publicly-funded workforce system. For the first time, any employer using the workforce system will be able to publish and distribute its job listings to multiple .JOBS sites facilitating faster connections for job seekers and resulting in quicker positive employment outcomes.

There are two classes of domain name registration in the .JOBS Universe: company names such as Att.jobs and Nissan.jobs and non-company names such as Marketing.jobs, Veterans.jobs and US.jobs. Companies are able to apply for their company name directly through their .JOBS registrar. Non-company names have been periodically allocated by the RFP process, such as the process in 2011 that produced the .JOBS Universe by DirectEmployers Association.

Bill Warren, DirectEmployers Association's Executive Director, says, "Our next steps for the .JOBS Universe include adding new social media elements and expanding internationally. Many of our member companies have international operations, so expanding the .JOBS TLD internationally makes sense for them long term. We are eager to continue building-out the .JOBS Universe and look forward to working with Employ Media in this endeavor which is clearly the next step in the evolution of Internet recruiting." 

Some from the job board industry had complained to ICANN that non-company names, such as those in 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."

About DirectEmployers Association
DirectEmployers Association is a leading nonprofit Human Resource consortium of global employers that was formed to assist in the sharing of ideas, incorporating of best practices, and research and development of technology. Through this consortium, business standards are shaped and technology is used with respect to the diversity that is reflected in the various cultures embodied in a global workforce. Our recognized expertise in compliance, recruitment and cost effective technology enables our members to reach the largest, most diverse pool of quality job seekers worldwide.

SOURCE DirectEmployers Association