republican-domain

The address extension ".republican" is a top-level domain of the provider Rightside/Demand Media.

The domain was approved on June 4, 2014 and added to the root zone of the Internet as a top-level domain. In the run-up to this, there was an objection from the Republican National Committee. The objection on the part of the Republicans pointed out that the naming of the top-level domain was misleading, as it had no direct reference to the party or its political content.

Brigitte Stern, as a staff member of the ICC, ruled that the term "Republican" was not a trademarked term and could therefore also be used by groups outside the Republican camp. The line of argumentation for the use of the term for a politically independent top-level domain had the following approximate wording:

"The term "republican" has a long and rich history in the world of politics. Ever since the Roman Republic fundamentally changed the state system a few thousand years ago, many people have considered themselves republicans. Citizens, political parties, civic and student organizations, newspapers, and even entire cities use this designation and its proud origins. (...) The mission and benefit of the .republican top-level domain is to establish a place for this large and dynamic group. "

Through this line of argument, all objections of the Republicans could be cleared out of the way. As a result, Rightside received a registration confirmation for ".republican" from ICANN on 20 March 2014.