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Username: A. Kinney
Date/Time: Fri, October 20, 2000 at 4:28 AM GMT
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer V4.5 using Macintosh
Score: 5
Subject: .biz and .ebiz would result in confusion

Message: 		 

 
                The issue is not, as Mr. Berent suggests, whether
Belize has
the “right” to market .bz to be the “sole TLD exclusively for
business.”  Clearly no "right" has been conferred upon the “.bz” TLD
and Mr. Berent even states several potential business TLDs that would
not result in confusion (e.g. “.ecom,” “.inc,” and “.firm”).  Rather
the issue is whether confusion would be created between an existing
TLD (.bz) that is being marketed as a business TLD and pronounced as
“dot BIZ” and a TLD that has not yet been issued (.biz or .ebiz) for
use as a business TLD and also pronounced as “dot BIZ" or "dot E-BIZ.” 
It is obvious that confusion would indeed result from granting a
“.biz” or ".ebiz" TLD.

While Mr. Berent takes issue that Belize did not submit an
application, it should be noted that .bz is already a valid existing
ccTLD and no application is necessary to request its issuance for Mr.
Berent or ICANN to review.  Furthermore, Belize may use its existing
.bz TLD however it desires and has decided to license it to a third
party to offer domain names to businesses.

ICANN is now aware that .bz is being marketed to businesses.   Factors
which ICANN has indicated it will consider in whether to grant a
presently non-issued TLD is whether it would disrupt the Internet due
to confusion with an existing TLD and whether a subsequently issued
TLD would negatively impact an existing TLD.  The .bz TLD is currently
existing and owned by the country of Belize.  A .biz or .ebiz TLD has
not been issued or being marketed at this time.  If either a .biz or
.ebiz TLD were to be issued, unnecessary confusion would result and an
existing ccTLD would be negatively impacted.

Mr. Berent’s position at Affinity Internet and Affinity Internet’s
desire to obtain a .biz or .ebiz TLD from ICANN makes it obvious why
he would advocate issuance of the TLDs in the face of causing certain
confusion in the Internet.  However, while he may complain that .bz
should not have the right to be marketed for businesses or that he was
not given enough information to evaluate its marketing and operational
plan himself, the reality is that .bz is an existing TLD, .bz is being
marketed to businesses, and the issuance of .biz or .ebiz would result
in the exact confusion with an existing TLD that ICANN has clearly
expressed should be avoided in its criteria for assessing
applications.

Therefore, applications for .biz and .ebiz should be rejected to
prevent unnecessary confusion.
   
   
 
   
    
 

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