ICANN has announced a schedule for auctions of contentious new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), with the first auction to take place on 4 June 2014. Most of the contentious names (or "strings" as they are often called) sought by more than one applicant have already been allocated, either through the process of community priority evaluation (see Legal update, ICANN publishes Community Priority Evaluation FAQs) or voluntary agreement between applicants. Auction is therefore the method of last resort to resolve the allocation of the remaining disputed gTLDs. Geographic names are, however, excluded from the auction process, and will be suspended until the applicants can resolve allocation between themselves, although ICANN says that auctions will be held for geographic names that are in dispute for being similar to non-geographic domains. Proceeds from the auctions will go to WIPO to fund its activities. For more information about procedures under the gTLD roll-out, see Article, Generic Top-level Domain (gTLD) Expansion and Legal update, ICANN publishes guidebook for new gTLD applicants and launches related initiatives.

Source: ICANN announcement, 19 March 2014.