ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit organization with oversight by the United States Department of Commerce that administers registries of internet protocol identifiers and domain name system (DNS) root registries. ICANN operates part of the DNS, including the top level domains (gTLDs), and manages IP addresses and other protocol numbers, so that a user typing in a domain name like “cooley.com” gets routed to the appropriate address. ICANN also accredits domain registration providers.