WHITELIST DOMAIN NAME REGISTRY

• US 20170195286A1
• Filed: 12/30/2015
• Published: 07/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Donuts Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Donuts Incorporated
• Inventors: Stahura, Paul, Cowherd, Christopher L.
• Granted Patent: US 11,552,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3015 Name registration, generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/302 Administrative registration, e.g. for domain names at internet corporation for assigned names and numbers [ICANN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3025 Domain name generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing domain name registrations in accordance with rules and regulations of a domain name verification system are disclosed. The disclosed technology enables a domain name verification system to regulate the registration of domain names in accordance with its own domain name registration policies. This disclosed system uses a “whitelist” domain name registry to register “whitelist domain names” once pre-approval to register a corresponding target domain name has been granted. In this manner, the whitelist domain name registry system acts as a repository for pre-approved domain name registrations and enables pre-qualified registrants (including potential or prospective registrants) to then register a target domain name.

Claims

1. A method, performed by a computing system having one or more processors, the method comprising:

receiving, by a whitelist domain name registry system, from an Internet domain name registrar on behalf of a registrant, a first set of one or more commands to register a first domain name on behalf of the registrant,

wherein the first set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant include;

credentials for the registrant, and the first domain name;

sending, by the whitelist domain name registry system to a verification system, the credentials for the registrant;

receiving, by the whitelist domain name registry system, from the verification system, an indication of whether the verification system has approved the registrant to register the first domain name;

generating a whitelist domain name,

wherein the generated whitelist domain name includes the first domain name and an identifier for the registrant, and

wherein the generated whitelist domain name is not identical to the first domain name;

writing the generated whitelist domain name to the whitelist domain name registry system,

wherein writing the generated whitelist domain name to the whitelist domain name registry system does not include registering the first domain name on behalf of the registrant;

receiving, at a target domain name registry system, a second set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant;

generating, by the target domain name registry system, the whitelist domain name;

determining, by the target domain name registry system, that the generated whitelist domain name exists in the whitelist domain name registry system; and

in response to determining, by the target domain name registry system, that the generated whitelist domain name exists in the whitelist domain name registry system,

retrieving, by the target domain name registry system, registration information for the generated whitelist domain name,

comparing, by the target domain name registry system, the retrieved registration information to the registration credentials,

evaluating, by the target domain name registry system, the second set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant based at least in part on the comparison of the retrieved registration information to the registration credentials, and

writing, by the target domain name registry system, the first domain name to a domain name system (DNS) server associated with the target domain name registry system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein each domain name registry system is a Shared Registry System.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of one or more commands to register the first domain name further includes credentials for the Internet domain name registrar.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending the credentials for the Internet domain name registrar to the verification system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant further includes credentials for the Internet domain name registrar.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the generated whitelist domain name further includes an identifier for the Internet domain name registrar.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the whitelist domain name includes a concatenation of at least the first domain name, the identifier for the registrant, and the identifier for the Internet domain name registrar.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein writing the generated whitelist domain name to the whitelist domain name registry does not include writing the first domain name to a domain name system server external to the whitelist domain name registry system.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second generated whitelist domain name does not exist in the whitelist domain name registry system,

determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second registrant is subject to control by the verification system, and

in response to determining that a second registrant is subject to control by a domain name management system,

denying a request to register a second target domain name on behalf of a second registrant.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second generated whitelist domain name does not exist in the whitelist domain name registry system,

determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second target domain name is subject to control by the verification system, and

in response to determining that the second target domain is subject to control by the verification system,

denying a request to register the second target domain name on behalf of a second registrant.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second generated whitelist domain name does not exist in the whitelist domain name registry system,

determining, by the target domain name registry system, that a second registrant is subject to control by the verification system, and

in response to determining that the second registrant is subject to control by the verification system,

denying a request to register the second target domain name.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending occurs in response to determining that at least the registrant or the Internet domain name registrar is subject to control or oversight by the verification system.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending occurs in response to determining that the first domain name is subject to control or oversight by the verification system.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein each set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant includes registration credentials.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

in response to determining, by the target domain name registry system, that the generated whitelist domain name exists in the whitelist domain name registry system,

retrieving, by the target domain name registry system, registration information for the generated whitelist domain name,

comparing, by the target domain name registry system, the retrieved registration information to the registration credentials, and

evaluating, by the target domain name registry system, the second set of one or more commands to register the first domain name on behalf of the registrant based at least in part on the comparison of the retrieved registration information to the registration credentials.

16. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, in response to being executed by a computing system having one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more commands to register a first domain name;

determining whether the first domain name is approved to be registered;

generating a whitelist domain name;

writing the generated whitelist domain name to a whitelist domain name registry;

receiving one or more commands to register the first domain name; and

in response to determining that the generated whitelist domain name exists in the whitelist domain name registry system,

writing the first domain name to a domain name registry.

17. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein at least one of the sets of one or more commands to register the first domain name include:

credentials for a registrant,

credentials for a registrar, and

the first domain name.

18. The computer-readable storage device of claim 17, wherein determining whether the first domain name is approved to be registered comprises:

determining whether the registrant is approved to register the first domain name; and

determining whether the registrar is approved to register the first domain name.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein the generated whitelist domain name is identical to the first domain name.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein writing the generated whitelist domain name to the whitelist domain name registry system comprises:

writing the generated whitelist domain name to a DNS server, a WHOIS server, an RDAP server, an RDDS server, or any combination thereof, that is not publicly-accessible.

21. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein writing the generated whitelist domain name to the whitelist domain name registry system enables the generated whitelist domain name to be readable via the DNS protocol, the RDAP protocol, the WHOIS protocol, an RDDS server, or any combination thereof.

22. The computer-readable storage device of claim 16, wherein writing the first domain name to a domain name registry comprises:

writing the first domain name to at least one of a DNS server, an RDAP server, a WHOIS server, an RDDS server, or any combination thereof.

23. A computing system for registering domain names, the computing system comprising:

means for registering whitelist domain names;

means for verifying domain name registrations; and

means for registering target domain names in accordance with a whitelist registry.

24. The computing system of claim 23, further comprising:

means for pruning a whitelist registry.