Chris is a trainee solicitor at Walker Morris in Leeds.Before joining Walker Morris Chris studied English Law and European Law at University where he focused on cyberlaw and cybercrime as part of his dissertation. Since University, Chris has worked both in Dubai and Hong Kong.
Anyone with £120,000 to spare can now submit their application for a new top-level domain name (TLD), known as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This generalisation of domain names will inevitably bring with it, not only a new .era for corporations and organisations - testing consumer confidence and scepticism - but, importantly, a new realm of legal issues including trade mark infringement, cybersquatting, brand protection, fraud and enforcement - all on a global scale.
What does this all mean? Currently, there are around 22 TLDs, most commonly recognised as .co.uk, .com, or .gov. TLDs are subject to certain restrictions including the requirement of English text only, posing the obvious issues for non-Latin speaking countries. The new gTLD, however, will not be subject to these restrictions leaving applications open to more varied and imaginative suffixes. Aside from that, anyone with the money, time and incentive to apply, now has the opportunity to apply.
A number of large companies and organisations have already expressed an interest in putting forward an application. For example, Pepsi is keen on buying .pepsi with the intention of launching a drink.pepsi website; Boris Johnson has announced City Hall's intention to register .London; and others such as Lloyds, HSBC or Virgin, perhaps - whoever gets there first - may look to register .bank or .money. However, whilst some companies appear enthusiastic about the new gTLD and the potential expansion this will facilitate or profit it will generate, others have expressed concerns. I set out some of these reasons below.
First and foremost, the addition of the gTLD to any corporate domain profile will undoubtedly increase costs. Not only will the applicant incur the not insignificant initial fee of £120,000 to register the gTLD and yearly maintenance fee of £16,000 but also indirect, more challenging expenditures, such as: fraud; trade mark infringement; marketing; and, the potential need to take protective buying measures to monopolise the market or simply to safeguard their product (Boris for example, budget permitting, may also seek to register .england or .mayor).
In response to these concerns, especially in relation to fraud and trade mark infringement, ICANN has put in place the following measures:
- A 50-question application form;
- A global trade mark clearinghouse to weed out applications from groups that don't own trade marks;
- Trade mark owners will have seven months to challenge applications;
- ICANN will publish the list of gTLD applications in May 2012, which will then be open for public comment for sixty days.
More generally, the new gTLDs will also bring with them an inevitable consumer scepticism, and potential loss of buyer confidence. Even now, a UK consumer would be reticent to buy from a non UK domain name such as .ru. How will consumers adapt to such generic and untested domain names? Will it actually make a difference; the majority of internet users simply rely on Google to direct them to the website anyway?
Despite ICANN's preventative measures, it is clear that opening up the TLD market will bring with it a number of challenges for UK consumers and companies both large and small.
What are your thoughts on the future of gTLDs?
How do you see this impacting on your job?
Do you think groups that don't own a trademark should have the opportunity to apply for gTLD?
Feel free to leave your questions and comments below.
Comments