BUSINESS NEWS FROM THE FOUR-COUNTY REGION
PORTLAND, OREGON
JUNE 24, 2011
From .com to .anything
BY ERIK SIEMERS
BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
A ruling this week that greatly expands
the breadth of Internet domain name possibilities is fraught with pros and cons.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers, the global nonprofit
organization that regulates the Internet’s
naming system, on Monday voted in Singapore to approve a plan to expand the number
of Internet address endings.
Today there are just 22 so-called “generic
top-level domains” — the letters that come to
the right of the dot in a domain name — such
as .com, .org and .net.
The ICANN decision effectively paves the
way for any word to be used as a domain
name suffix. It was immediately hailed as
a new way for companies to market their
brands and products.
For instance, Nike Inc., hypothetically,
could apply for the use of .nike — allowing
it to shift from traditional naming conventions such as store.nike.com to simply store.
nike or basketball.nike.
The new rules come with built-in safeguards to protect against cybersquatting.
Proposed names, for example, must be
run through a trademark clearinghouse.
If someone tries to register a trademarked
name, the owner of that trademark will be
notified.
Applicants will also be screened to see if
they have a history of cybersquatting.
However, Parna A. Mehrbani, an intellectual property attorney with Lane Powell in
Portland who specializes in Internet trademark issues, said the biggest threat could
come from the use of generic words — such
as .shoes or .flowers.
“It’s essentially opening up any number
of new locations where anybody could file a
registration for a domain that included your
trademark,” Mehrbani said.
Considering the potential of increased disputes, ICANN is incorporating a resolution
process, referred to as the Uniform Rapid
Suspension System, designed to provide
trademark holders a quicker, less costly
process to get domain names suspended in
cases of clear-cut infringement.
Phil Lodico, vice president
of Coalition Against Domain
Name Abuse — a Washington,
D.C., organization representing several major brands, including Nike — believes the
costs required of registering
a top-level domain could outweigh the benefits.
Mehrbani
Just to apply for a new generic top-level domain costs $185,000. If the
application is accepted, the applicant must
pay another $25,000 per year to maintain the
domain.
Lodico also believes the new naming conventions would add little value. In other
words, there’s little Nike can do with a .nike
domain that it can’t already do with Nike.
com.
For others, however, the new ICANN
rules could create opportunity.
Portland-based SnapNames — a division
of Los Angeles-based Oversee.net — is in
the business of buying and auctioning onceregistered domain names that have been
surrendered.
Mason Cole, the company’s vice president
of corporate communications, said SnapNames could offer to work with new registrants to help market domain names to its
customers.
“If you have rock.music or drama.movie,
we’ve got a customer base of tens of thousands of people interested in those premium
names,” Cole said from Singapore, where he
was attending the ICANN meetings.
esiemers@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3418
Reprinted for web use with permission from the Portland Business Journal. ©2011, all rights reserved. Reprinted by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263.
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