ICANN Banned the Backroom Deal. 1,616 Domain Bids Are Finding Out What Replaces It.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit that administers the domain name system, confirmed on September 22, 2026 that 1,616 new top-level domain applications will proceed toward a public “Reveal Day,” according to CircleID. It is the first expansion round in which rival applicants for the same string cannot pay each other to make the conflict disappear.

What did ICANN confirm on September 22?

ICANN’s 2026 New gTLD Program — the process by which companies apply to run their own suffix, from .brand to .shop — closed its application window on August 12, 2026, after fifteen weeks, with 1,663 submissions. Forty-seven never reached the paid-application stage, leaving 1,616 confirmed to move forward, ICANN said, per CircleID’s September 22 report.

That figure only counts who paid the evaluation fee. It says nothing yet about which strings collide. ICANN has said Reveal Day — when applicant identities, requested strings, and initial contention sets are published — will land no later than October 14, 2026, and told Domain Name Wire on September 21 that it would announce the exact date and the schedule for the String Replacement Period, String Confirmation Day, and the objections window the following week.

Why the 2012 playbook doesn’t repeat this time

In the 2012 round, 234 contention sets — cases where two or more applicants wanted the identical string — went to resolution. Only 16 ended up at an ICANN-run auction. The rest cleared through withdrawals, community priority evaluation, or private deals the applicants struck themselves, often splitting the losing bidders’ payout among them.

The 2026 Applicant Guidebook, published April 24, 2026, removes that off-ramp. Private auctions, joint ventures, and any arrangement that pays a rival to withdraw are explicitly prohibited; the only paths left are a Community Priority Evaluation, where applicable, or an ICANN-run auction where no losing bidder is compensated. ICANN’s own reasoning, reported by webhosting.today on August 17, 2026, is that private settlements had been drawing in applicants who filed purely hoping to be bought out — padding contention sets rather than reflecting genuine demand for a string.

Read forward from the 2012 ratio, that single rule change could multiply the number of strings headed to a public, ICANN-run auction well beyond 16 — auctions whose proceeds go to ICANN’s own reserve fund, not to the applicants who lose.

The loophole ICANN won’t close

The ban has a gap ICANN has declined to plug. Domain Name Wire reported on August 20, 2026 that it asked ICANN directly whether applicants for the same string may negotiate before Reveal Day, since the guidebook bars private auctions and joint ventures but does not explicitly prohibit applicants from discussing strategy outside the periods when communication is barred. ICANN’s response, per that report, was that it does not interpret the guidebook for specific situations or applicants.

That ambiguity means two applicants who already suspect they are chasing the same string — before any contention set is officially formed — may have more room to talk than two applicants who find out on Reveal Day itself. Nobody outside ICANN’s legal team currently knows where that line sits, and ICANN has told applicants, as recently as September 21, that it is still finalizing the sequence of dates that would make the answer matter in practice.

What a brand or licensing team should decide before Reveal Day

For an IP licensing team or trademark owner watching this round rather than applying in it, the ban changes the calculus for defending a mark. Under the old rules, a brand that spotted a lookalike applicant could often resolve it commercially, off the record, once contention became visible. That option is now gone for anyone who waits for Reveal Day to act.

The formal channel instead runs later and slower: the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations agency that already administers domain-name arbitration under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, has been appointed sole provider for Legal Rights Objections and String Confusion Objections in this round. Trademark owners get a 104-day window to file, opening at String Confirmation Day — projected for November 2026 — and running through roughly February 2027, alongside public comments and Governmental Advisory Committee early warnings.

That leaves a brand or licensing team two live options this quarter: use the current ambiguity to make informal contact now, before Reveal Day defines the battle lines and before ICANN’s silent-period rules formally apply — accepting the legal uncertainty Domain Name Wire flagged — or hold off, accept that a contested string could reach a public ICANN auction with no buyout available, and prepare the WIPO objection now so it is ready to file the moment String Confirmation Day opens the 104-day clock. Waiting until Reveal Day to decide which path to take is the one option this round has removed.

Key takeaways

• ICANN confirmed on September 22, 2026 that 1,616 of 1,663 submitted new gTLD applications paid the evaluation fee and will proceed toward Reveal Day, expected no later than October 14, 2026, according to CircleID.
• The 2026 Applicant Guidebook bans private resolution of contention sets — no private auctions, joint ventures, or payment for withdrawal — a reversal of the 2012 round, where only 16 of 234 contention sets reached an ICANN auction and most settled privately.
• ICANN told Domain Name Wire on August 20, 2026 that it will not clarify whether applicants may negotiate before Reveal Day, leaving a practical gap between the guidebook’s text and how applicants are using it.
• Trademark owners get a 104-day Legal Rights Objection and String Confusion Objection window through WIPO, opening at String Confirmation Day — projected for November 2026 — rather than the informal buyouts that resolved most 2012-round conflicts.
• Brand and IP licensing teams watching for a contested string should decide this quarter whether to test the pre-Reveal-Day ambiguity or prepare a WIPO objection in advance, since waiting until Reveal Day removes the option to settle privately.