Applicants have until mid-August to apply.

The wait is over.

Fourteen years after the last round closed, ICANN has opened a brief window to apply for new top level domains. The deadline is August 12.

Applicants will have to fork over $227,000 just to apply, in addition to whatever legal and technical fees they incur.

I’ve heard wide estimates of how many applications people think ICANN will receive. In 2012, ICANN received 1,930 applications covering 1,400 unique strings. More than 1,200 new TLDs were delegated, although some companies have since terminated their contracts.

A big difference in this round will be that parties can’t work out partnerships and payouts after the applications are revealed in October.

Learn more about this round and a solution to help applicants avoid contention sets in this week’s podcast.