Re: [gnso-vi-feb10] Private TLDs

[Antony Van Couvering <avc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Apologies for having to ask this, but what is a brand?

If it's anyone with a trademark, then the obvious thing to do if you want to 
avoid the registrar channel is get a trademark, "license" the names out (isn't 
this the legal fiction anyway?), and avoid all ICANN fees and other pesky 
restrictions....

Consider also a sports franchise (say the NBA) or an automobile manufacturer 
(say BMW).  The NBA would want to provide each of its franchisees with a .nba 
name, for instance lakers.nba.  They might also want to register/protect the 
names of all the players, as well as provide names to authorized ticket 
vendors, merchandise vendors, etc.  In the case of BMW, they might want to 
issue a domain name to each authorized dealership, repair facility, or 
authorized fan club. 

It is just as silly to make them go to a registrar to do all of this stuff as 
it would be for them to use a registrar just to give out emails.  Essentially, 
a middleman with no added value. 

Antony


On Mar 25, 2010, at 10:01 AM, Stéphane Van Gelder wrote:

> 
> 
>> 
>> Avri,
>> 
>> (JR) In my opinion it is ok for brand TLDs to give out names to consumers if 
>> the names are very tightly connected to the brand owner’s (online) services. 
>> But also then there would be the question of unfair competition with “open “ 
>> TLDs.  However, we need to keep in mind that running a big TLD is a 
>> relatively costly business, so I don’t see many TLDs just giving names out 
>> just for fun.
> 
> (SVG) I don't see how that can work. Either the brand TLD operator has to own 
> all of its domains and cannot distribute them to third parties (which doesn't 
> prevent the brand owner from leasing names out or entrusting them to others 
> BTW), and that way the registrar requirement may not be needed, or the brand 
> TLD operator is allowed to give or sell names to third parties and in that 
> case the playing field should be even with all other TLDs that do distribute 
> names and the TLD operator should have to work through ICANN registrars.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> Stéphane Van Gelder
> Directeur Général / General manager
> +33 1 48 01 83 51
> 
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