LOS ANGELES — While much attention was focused on ICANN's approval of domain names using non-Latin characters at its recent meeting in Seoul, South Korea, some observers are expressing concern over the governance body's delays in implementing new top level domains (TLDs).

These are "custom" TLDs that ICANN said it would open the door to as early as next year — examples of which include the new .gay initiative and the ongoing saga of .xxx — extensions whose backers hope will distinguish sites that choose to use them, rather than a generic .com web address.

Delays in the TLD approval process, however, may force ICANN to begin pre-registering applicants, in part to allow time for critics of a proposed TLD's moral acceptability to state their opposition. This will be an increasingly important factor for marketers as U.S. control of ICANN is relinquished and more 'globally acceptable' regulations are implemented — with new, likely stricter standards, being decided upon by countries that lack America's rights and freedoms.

Beyond the "morality" issue, ICANN has also expressed concern over cybersquatting and trademark infringement, as well as root scaling — the process of growing the Internet's infrastructure to accommodate new languages and new TLDs — and hopes that a pre-registration process will allow it to gain a better idea of the actual demand for new TLDs, and the scope of the name proposals, to aid in developing concise guidelines for applicants and reviewers.

"We have some ideas whereby an applicant can pay a fee and begin the review of information," Minds and Machines' COO Jothan Frakes said at a public meeting on the issue. "In this way applicants can go back to their constituents, their stakeholders, communities and investors with positive news, while ICANN staff will gain information about the universe of applicants who will be bringing discussions about public morality, root scaling, rights protection, and other matters out of the theoretical and into the practical realm."

A pre-application process is seen as a way to begin timely conflict resolution processes and to help determine the demand for any new TLDs.

"The fact is, there are several bureaucratic stages in the application process that could be started earlier," Gandi.net COO Joe White said. "For example, if two people wanted to operate '.music', the process to settle their competing applications could begin soon, rather than waiting for the other more technical and legal pieces from ICANN to be complete."

"Consumers will start to form opinions on whether they trust the new TLDs any more, whether they see any value in them, and whether it's really as exciting as ICANN thinks it will be," White added.

The delays in getting the new TLD approval process underway are nonetheless frustrating applicants seeking to move swiftly on new business opportunities.

"We're aware that delay favors incumbents. We're aware that delay is costly and may, in fact, deprive us, if it goes on for much longer, of the very innovation that this project was intended to help stimulate," ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate-Thrush commented. "On the other hand, delay is caused by the fact that we have to do this very carefully... This is a balancing exercise for the board. There is no intention to delay. We just have to make sure we do it properly."