World Business

Analysts and lawyers are warning that the decision to make allowance custom top-level domains will have being a “nightmare” during the term of brand managers

by David Meyer

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On Thursday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to allow–in addition to else traditional top-level domains (TLDs), such as .com and .org–theoretically any TLD at all, as long as it is no longer than 64 characters long. The application process for of that kind consuetude TLDs looks set to be arduous and the criteria rationally austere, but observers say the new body will create confusion.

“This has the in posse for perfect primordial confusion,” reported John Mackenzie, of the law firm Pinsent Masons, on Friday. “The attraction for cybersquatters is not going to subsist setting up a registry that matches someone besides’s brand; it will be in the generic TLDs. All of a sudden, every brand will be forced to register their designation at .store, .buy and .london to cease from anyone else acquirement it.”

Mackenzie added that a similar effect was seen whenever the .eu TLD was introduced. “Our clients didn’t scarceness the .eu domain name but they felt they had no choice,” he told ZDNet Asia’s sister site ZDNet UK on Friday. “They had to register their brands as .eu names. Before that, it was .info and .biz and all the others. Each time a new TLD is introduced, large brands incur expense a chance on defensive registrations to avoid the greater expense of recovering the names from cybersquatters further down the line. ICANN has just multiplied those costs. It’s a brand owner’s nightmare.”

Roy Illsley, a senior research algebraist at the Butler Group, echoed Mackenzie’s sentiments. “It’s going to give brand managers a massive cephalalgy,” he said. “There will be a very large number of in posse extensions. If [the stigma owners] don’t use them, then, if someone else gets them, it does potential brand damage.”

“If you go beyond the stain, it’s [slogans like] ‘Every petty helps’ from Tesco,” Illsley continued. “Can anyone use that? Once you’ve [made any TLD possible], you’ve really opened a can of worms.”

However, a spokesperson for Nominet, the forming that runs the .uk TLD, told ZDNet UK on Friday that applying to set up a new TLD would involve “a significant investment”.

“Once you’re up and running, you’ll be in on account of the long haul,” Nominet’s spokesperson said. “You will have to prove [beforehand that] that you’ve got the right operational skills and technical background and infrastructure to maintain stability on the internet. It’s hard to say exactly how it’ll turn out. There is an ‘counteraction’ phase in there as in a proper manner; people will be able to oppose certain applications. I don’t think [ICANN] require made that section of the process totally clear at the moment.”