Relevant Excerpt from the Application Comment Guide at http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-comments/user-guide-13jun12-en.pdf
The String Similarity evaluation panel assesses whether a proposed gTLD string is likely to result in user confusion due to similarity with any reserved name,
any existing TLD, any requested IDN ccTLD, or any new gTLD string applied for in the current application round.