“The new gTLD application comment period provides the public with an opportunity to have their views considered by evaluation panels as part of the application evaluations. ”

“The comment period opened on 13 June 2012 and will remain open for the entire application processing life cycle. The old timeline provided that only those comments received within the first 60 days, through 12 August 2012, were sure to be delivered to evaluators. ”

“We’ve now extended that period an additional 45 days.”

“The Applicant Guidebook states that the public comment period could be extended based on the number of applications received. Leading up to the original 60-day deadline, ICANN received input from the community that this window should be extended to provide for the additional time needed to analyze and provide thoughtful comment on the significantly larger than 500 applications originally anticipated.”

“After review and discussion of the community’s input, and careful consideration of the implications and impacts the additional time may have on the processing of applications, we have extended the application comment period an additional 45 days.”

“This extended time will allow the public the most amount of time possible to submit comments without affecting current schedules.”