July 2000 Yokohama Meetings:
Agenda Items and Documents for
Public Review
and CommentThank you for your efforts in regulating TLD's. Thank you also
for the time and effort you are investing in the public review process.
By way
of background, I am an intellectual property attorney located in the "multimedia
gulch" area of San Francisco. My law firm represents a variety of web-based,
web-enabled, and high-tech companies. My clients range from multinational corporations
to start-ups. Virtually all of my clients have a ".com". Many of them
have also registered .web domains through IODESIGN. I do not formally or informally
represent IODESIGN.
I am responding to only those Questions posted on the ICANN
site with which my clients are concerned.
QUESTION 7: A registrar
should be approved based on the length of time with which it has successfully taken
registrations or pre-registrations. For example, IODESIGN has taken pre-registrations
for 4 years, and has successfully maintained a database of information.
QUESTION
19: The introduction of additional undifferentiated TLDs will NOT result in
increased inter-TLD confusion among Internet users. Consumers will easily be
able to distinguish between additional undifferentiated TLDs and the .com, .net and
.org TLDs. An exception to this would be if a new undifferentiated TLD is approved
which sounds nearly identical with one of the current ones. For example, .co
might be confused with .com, network might be confused with .net, or .organic might
be confused with .org. As an intellectual property lawyer, it is my opinion
that similar-sounding tld's would be the main source of confusion among consumers.
QUESTION
20: Taking all the relevant factors into account, one or more fully open TLDs should
be included in the initial introduction.
QUESTION 22: Other fully open TLDs
could provide effective competition to .com .Web, in particular, would be a
good competitor to .com. There is tremendous good will associated with the
world wide web in general and the word "WEB" in particular. Moreover, as more
and more businesses become WEB-BASED businesses, such a domain will have even further
goodwill. For example, webcasts are the commonly used term for web-based broadcasts.
Therefore, I predict that the TLD .web will become a real competitor with .com as
the most prestigious TLD.
QUESTION 26: Approving .web would not make it harder
for internet users to find companies on the internet. Consumers can differentiate
between the .web and .com TLD's: they have no letters in common and they sound
very different when pronounced verbally.
QUESTION 30: The .Web
TLD would be meaningful for consumers. Just as ".com" domains
are associated with the terms "company" or "commerce" in the minds of consumers,
".web" domains will be associated as web-based or web-enabled businesses.
Consumers can easily distinguish between .com, .net, org and .web so they won't get
confused.
QUESTION 34: Yes, the inventory of useful and available domain names
reached an unacceptably low
Level. As an intellectual property attorney
whose practice includes branding and domain-naming, I can tell you that virtually
all of the catchy domain names are already taken. Approval of new unrestricted
TLD's such as .web will allow new companies a chance to compete with the established
players in branding and marketing which is, after all, the whole idea behind our
free-market capitalist system.
QUESTIONS 42-44 and QUESTIONS 46-48: Owners
of .com or .net names or company names should ONLY be allowed to pre-register domain
names in new TLD's under 2 conditions. (1) they need to prove that they hold
a valid, strong trademark before being allowed to pre-register. It should NOT
be good enough that they own a domain name unless they also hold strong, existing
trademark rights. And (2) pre-registrations should only be allowed as to the
marks themselves, along with a very limited "family of marks" which are inherent
within the trademarked name. In other words, the Coca-Cola Corporation should
be able to pre-register CocaCola.web, Coke.web, NewCoke.web, DietCoke.web, CherryCoke.web
and perhaps CokeSoda.web, but NOT SoftDrinks.web or Cola.web. Companies should
NOT be able to pre-register generic non-trademarkable domains.
QUESTION 45: IODESIGN
pre-registrations should be entered into the root server immediately upon approval
of .web as a new unrestricted TLD. IODESIGN is a special situation, given the
fact that it has earned a "pioneers preference" and given its four years of successful
registrations and database operation.
QUESTION 54: Again, for the aforementioned
reasons, .web and IODESIGN is a special situation. .Web should be approved
as one of the testbed TLD's, and IODESIGN's pre-registrations should be entered into
the root server.
QUESTION 57: Potential TLD labels should be chosen based on the
following criteria: (1) goodwill associated with the name; and (2) internationally
recognizable. As discussed above, .web will have tremendous consumer goodwill.
.Web is also internationally recognizable, because net-savvy people from every country
and every language know what the "WEB" is. In contrast, a non-english
word like "banc" may be LESS understandable world wide than .web, since .banc is
a relatively rare European spelling. As an example, a search on the leading
search engine, GOOGLE, pulled up 2,230,000 hits for "web", and 1,390,000 hits
for "bank", but only 123,000 hits for "banc".
QUESTIONS 58-61: If only
one new domain name is approved, .web is the best name, for the reasons presented
above.
QUESTIONS 63-69: A registrar which has a TRACK RECORD in registering
alternative domain names should be awarded the right to register new names.
Stability of the domain name system is an important goal. Successful, substantial,
and continuous pre-registrations of alternative unrestricted TLD's is the best indicator
of ability to handle a registrar's responsibilities.
In summary, approving .web
as a new open TLD and allowing IODESIGN's preregistrations to be entered into the
root server will meet the following goals of ICANN's mission:
(1) Maintain the
Internet's stability and allow: a "measured and responsible" introduction;
(2)
Allow a well-controlled, small-scale introduction as a "proof of concept" for
possible future introductions;
(3) Enhance competition for registration services;
(4)
Enhancing the utility of the DNS; and
(5) Enhance the number of available domain
names.
Respectfully,
D. Alexander Floum, Esq.