By Eric Fingerhut, Guest Blogger
The domain name system has been making news again. As you may have read or heard, the Internet governing body, ICANN, will start taking applications for new branded (.NIKE) and generic (.SHOES) top level domains (TLDs) on January 12, 2012. This is less than two weeks away!
ICANN’s actions have provoked a lot of debate among brand owners, who complain the new TLDs will cause consumer confusion and increase trademark enforcement obligations. Others, mostly domain name registrars, claim the new TLDs will spark innovation and business opportunities. While most trademark lawyers have publicly declared their opposition to the new system, I view the new system as a foregone conclusion. With an “if you can’t beat them, join them mentality,” my firm has written that new TLDs like .BANK could be a very good thing. You can read the complete article here.
On December 8th, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation held a hearing on the new TLDs. Although the Senate Committee members seemed concerned over the rollout and understanding of the predicament of businesses and non-profits, the Committee apparently believes the time to complain about them has passed. Tellingly, Senator Jay Rockefeller said: “I think we have to get used to ‘.hotel’ and .auto’ and so on. I think new domains can create innovation and job opportunities . . . it is my hope that we can phase this expansion over time . . . not be regretful in retrospect for being too hasty.”
If you are an individual or company with a brand, you will be impacted to some extent by the new TLDs. As an example, a company like Cannondale, which has operated Cannondale.com for years, has to decide whether it’s going to register Cannondale.bike, or whether it wants to be able to control Cannondale as a TLD so that it can have a special web site for its dealers at http://www.dealers.cannondale.
2012 promises to be a busy year on the trademark front. Given all of the current confusion surrounding the new TLDs, Dykema’s Trademark Practice’s brochure, “.BRAND – Your Guide to the New TLDs” can help simplify a very complex set of rules and procedures. We hope you find it useful for your business planning.
Eric Fingerhut is the Leader of Dykema‘s Trademark Practice. Ranked as a First Tier trademark lawyer in the World Trademark Review‘s “WTR 1000,” he has practiced all aspects of global brand identity and reputation management for more than 20 years.
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