New Domain Names (Maybe)

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has decided to choose seven new top level domain names to join the last added ones: .COM, .NET, .ORG. The lucky seven will include .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .PRO, .COOP, .MUSEUM and .AERO. Anyone will be allowed to register new domains in these new suffixes.

The approved .INFO will be for general usage, .BIZ for businesses, .NAME for individuals, .PRO for professionals such as lawyers and doctors, .COOP for business cooperatives, .MUSEUM for exhibits and the arts, and .AERO is intended for the aviation industry. These suffixes won't compete directly with .COM on a commercial basis, but will provide a restricted, specific place for specialized content to reside on the web.

The addition of new domain names offers more choices for Internet users and businesses wishing to establish Web sites. It also breaks the monopoly now held by Network Solutions, Inc., which controls the database that acts as the central clearinghouse for Web sites ending in .COM, .ORG and .NET.

LONG ROAD TO NEW HOME PAGE

If all goes according to plan, the new TLDs will likely be activated in the summer of 2001. The next step in the process will be intense negotiations with all the finalists. The ICANN board will further nail down performance criteria,get signed contracts from each applicant in which they are 
contractually tied to rolling out their new TLDs as proposed. 

And just because an applicant has been chosen as a finalist Thursday is no guarantee that they’ll actually be given the green light to rollout their TLD.  “There’s still a complex negotiation process that has to be completed,” said Louis Touton, ICANN’s vice president and general counsel. “There’s no guarantee that those [applicants] chosen today will survive.” Those negotiations are scheduled to be complete by December. 

Once the final contracts are nailed down, ICANN will make a request to Department of
Commerce to approve the new suffixes. Once that approval is given, the new
suffixes can open for business. But another roadblock has bubbled up that has the potential to scuttle the entire ICANN process. Two members of Congress sent a strongly worded letter to the Commerce Department on Wednesday raising questions about ICANN’s ability to operate in a fair and unbiased manner. The letter, signed by Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., the ranking minority member on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee and Lois Capps, D-Calif., says there have been concerns “raised in many quarters of the
Internet community about the lack of accountability and transparency in the ICANN process.”

The letter notes that newly elected at-large directors, who were elected via a global election in which votes were cast online, are not being allowed to participate in the new TLD selection process. Further, the letter says that the staff recommendation was “not made available for timely public review and comment.” Finally, the letter urges Commerce to “delay the implementation of 
the recommendations” made by ICANN until the public and Commerce has the opportunity to “thoroughly review the ICANN process.”

ICANN  Approves new .biz and .info
     Domain Name Suffix

New Domain Names Might be Expensive
     to Maintain

Domain Names Home

Related article:
Can You Register Your Domain Name As A Trademark? Should You Seek Trademark Protection?