for the London Free Press – Dec 1, 2008
A recent decision by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for global co-ordination of the Internet’s addressing system, will permit companies and individuals to turn their names into Web addresses: www.david.canton, for example.
The wrinkle? The fee to obtain .canton as a TLD, or top level domain, is about $200,000.
This year, ICANN relaxed the strict rules on TLDs, paving the way for alternatives to .com and the 21 generic TLDs serving the Net. There are also country-level TLDs such as .ca for Canada.
Now ICANN is about to allow new generic top level domains (gTLDs) that anyone can create, opening the door for companies to register their brands as gTLDs, such as “.coke”.
“The Internet has produced great openness and innovation that has led to changes few of us imagined,” said Paul Twomey, ICANN’s president and chief executive. “The effect of opening up the top-level of the domain system will enable more innovation and entrepreneurial applications.”
ICANN also plans to introduce domain names in various languages and scripts, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian. This proposal would permit Internet addresses to be created in completely non-English characters for the first time, opening the Internet to millions more people worldwide.
Currently, the addressing system only supports 37 Roman characters. ICANN’s chairperson, Peter Dengate Thrush, has said this move “is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, eastern Europe and Russia.”
ICANN’s proposal is not without its critics, however. Opponents argue that it will be costly, difficult to administer and could lead to bidding wars over more generic names.
In addition, trademarks will not be automatically reserved. Owners will have to resort to an objection-based mechanism to make arguments for the protection of their trademarks.
ICANN assures critics that these concerns have been “listened to and taken into account.”
The organization released a draft of the applicant guidebook on Oct. 23, 2004, for those interested in applying for a new gTLD. On Oct. 24, 2008, ICANN began the first of two 45-day public comment periods.
ICANN warns, however, that “potential applicants for new gTLDs should not rely on any of the proposed details of the draft guidebook, which remains subject to further consultation and revision.”
With the final applicant guidebook slated for release early next year, ICANN expects to accept bids for new gTLDs as early as the second quarter of 2009.
During the application period, which is expected to be limited, “any established entity from anywhere in the world can submit an application that will go through an evaluation process.”
New gTLDs could be in use as early as the last half of 2009.
ICANN expects additional application periods will follow soon after the initial process ends.