Prospective e-commerce ventures recognize the importance of a catchy, memorable domain name in launching retail or b-to-b ventures. In the rush to register names, at least ninety-eight percent of all common English words have been assigned.
If you're looking to register a domain name, you may soon have alternatives to the picked-over dot.com registry. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international nonprofit entity charged with administration of the Internet, may introduce new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) beyond the existing seven—.com, .net, .org, .edu, .int, .mil, and .gov. Each of these new levels would open fresh ground for registrations of words already taken in the dot.com level. Dozens of additional domains have been proposed, including .shop, .store, .biz, .banc, .firm, .arts, .per and .nom. ICANN will consider a policy for adopting new gTLDs at its meeting July 15 and 16 in Yokohama, Japan.
Debate over ICANN's policy has been contentious. Companies with dot.com domains and established brand names—primarily U.S. corporations—fear that the proliferation of top-level domains will make it harder to protect trademarks and will multiply the cybersquatting problem. Although the new cybersquatting legislation provided trademark holders with a powerful tool to protect themselves online, the problem is still rampant. For example, Warner Brothers recently announced that it already was sending out more than 100 letters each week to persons who had registered variations of the company's movie, book and recording trademarks under existing gTLDs.
Many entrepreneurs and non-U.S. companies, on the other hand, are pushing for the rapid adoption of multiple new gTLDs. While ICANN does not yet have a coherent policy, the organization seems to be moving toward a plan to roll out at least a couple of new gTLDs before the year ends, and to implement a "sunrise" period during which owners of globally famous names would get first shot at registering those names.
Meanwhile, creative domain name prospectors who can't wait for ICANN to make a move are registering names under country-level domains. The registration system offers two types of top-level domains. The first are the gTLDs, which have been the subject of the domain land-rush described above. The second type are the country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Each country has its own domain suffix, such as .it (Italy), .tm (Turkmenistan) and .us (United States). Despite the fact that ccTLDs are supposed to be maintained for the public good of the country's inhabitants, the demand for domain names in an increasingly crowded field is leading to the commodification of some ccTLDs. In 1998, NetNames, a domain name registry, began registering names in Sweden, Norway and Denmark under the top-level domain .as (American Samoa). ".As" in Scandinavian countries is the equivalent of "Inc." in the U.S. More recently, DotTV, a startup incubated by Idealab in Pasadena, California, reportedly agreed to pay the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu up to $50 million over 12 years for the right to register Internet addresses under Tuvalu's .tv domain. DotTV is auctioning the .tv names with minimum bids starting at $1,000.
Buyers of .tv names, however, may be taking a risk. ICANN has the power to revoke the registration rights of the .tv domain registrars if they are not acting in the interest of the 10,000 or so Tuvalu inhabitants. In February, for example, ICANN redelegated the administration of the .pn domain (Pitcairn Islands) after islanders argued that it was not being administered in their interest. DotTV claims that it runs little risk of ICANN intervention because Tuvalu residents will profit from the sale of .tv. This "creative" use of country-level domains illustrates the fierce competition for desirable domain names.
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