gTLD applicants typically face hundreds of pages of technical specifications, financial disclosures, and compliance declarations. During the 2012 round, organisations spent months drafting applications, often with fragmented advisory teams producing inconsistent documentation. At pitch.law, we have completely redesigned the application process. With the right system, what previously took months can now be completed in weeks. The application becomes a formality, freeing applicants to focus on strategy rather than paperwork.
Our process integrates PitchZone's structured question capture with direct legal drafting by experienced ICANN counsel. Validation protocols prevent errors before submission. Joint contract drafting with technical partners happens in parallel, ensuring submission and operational readiness arrive together, not sequentially.
PitchZone presents the AGB's 200+ questions in a structured sequence with adaptive logic, dependencies, and contextual guidance. The applicant team works through each section (technical, financial, operational, legal, policy) with role-based access ensuring that the right experts address the right questions. AI-assisted drafting generates structured starting points for narrative responses; the applicant team and pitch.law attorneys refine these into submission-ready text.
For technical sections, we coordinate directly with the applicant's chosen registry service provider to ensure consistency between the technical commitments in the application and the operational capabilities of the infrastructure. For financial sections, we work with the applicant's finance team to prepare capability documentation that meets ICANN's evaluation criteria. This parallel workstream management is a key differentiator: applicants who manage these workstreams sequentially lose months of preparation time.
Before submission, the complete application undergoes a multi-stage validation process. Formal validation checks for completeness (all required questions answered), consistency (no contradictions between sections), and compliance (all mandatory commitments and disclosures present). Substantive review by pitch.law attorneys assesses whether the responses meet the evaluation criteria that ICANN's evaluators will apply. The goal is to produce an application that passes initial evaluation without triggering extended evaluation or clarification requests, which add months to the timeline.
With our streamlined approach and PitchZone platform, the application process can be completed in weeks rather than months. The exact timeline depends on the readiness of your organisation's technical, financial, and governance documentation.
Inconsistencies between the technical and financial sections, incomplete background documentation for key personnel, inadequately specified community nexus for community applications, and failure to address all required registry agreement commitments. Our validation process catches these before submission.
Yes, and we strongly recommend it. The AGB content is available before the window opens, and the majority of preparation work (string selection, partner contracting, financial documentation, organisational documentation) can and should be completed in advance. The submission window should be used for final validation and filing, not for starting the preparation process.
After submission, ICANN conducts an administrative completeness check followed by initial evaluation. We monitor ICANN communications throughout the evaluation period and prepare responses to any clarification requests or evaluator queries. If the application proceeds to extended evaluation or faces objections, we manage those processes through to resolution.
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