New Web Addresses Could Cost Businesses Millions
Last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to relax rules governing the assignment of top level domains (TLD) (the endings of Web addresses, such as ".com". The new rules would open up the possibility for custom domain suffixes, so that, instead of being stuck with ".com" or ".net," companies and individuals could purchase domain names that ended in ".cereal," or ".phone," or ".smith."
Since voting on the new rules in June of 2008, ICANN has been working to iron out some of the kinks and to address the concerns of businesses. Some companies worry that they will be forced to protect their brand by registering many new domain names, or even by controlling an entire TLD. Completely taking control of a suffix, such as ".aol," would cost $185,000 to apply, and $25,000 a year thereafter to maintain ownership. Even worse, if more than one company wanted control of a TLD, it could spark a bidding war that could end up setting the price at millions of dollars.
Companies are already forced to register several domains to protect customers and their brand. For example, Verizon owns "Verizon.com," "Verizon.info," "Verizon.biz," and "FIOS.net," all of which redirect you to the Verizon main page. With the new domain availability, Verizon may be forced to also register Verizon.Phone, Verizon.Internet, Verizon.Fios, etc. You can see how the costs could quickly escalate. We singled out Verizon since their Vice President, Sarah Deutsch, told USA Today that "many businesses feel this is a form of extortion."
The idea of freeing up more viable domain names is exciting, especially considering that trying to find a ".com" address that hasn't already been purchased is harder than teaching a dog not to lick itself. That doesn't mean we don't understand the concern of companies who feel that maintaining control of their brand name may prove to be far too expensive and difficult in the new Wild West era of TLDs. We guess we'll just have to see how this one plays out. [From: USA Today]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hope said 12:40PM on 4-08-2009
This is absolutely true. Every 2 - 3 months, we receive emails from worthless Chinese companies claiming to have received requests from someone else who wants to register a domain that already belongs to us or trademark our company name. We are a small company but we have spent hundreds of dollars trying to protect our brand name from these same unscruplous Chinese people. Our standard reply in 36 pt in red color to these worthless people is a reminder that they cannot register a domain which is already registered and belongs to us. Usually that stops them because we never hear from these worthless people. These chinese companies register their domain and send out mass emails to companies like ours to threaten and make a quick buck. So far we have managed to protect our brand name and domains.
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