The plan of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to introduce hundreds of new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) this spring has run headlong into opposition from Uncle Sam. In December the U.S. Department of Commerce called on ICANN to spell out how it will “respect all relevant national and international law, including intellectual property rights” in implementing the new scheme. Under ICANN policy, an existing trademark is not a reason to deny an application for one of the new domain names. Many experts predict that the new system will be an unmitigated disaster for brand owners, putting pressure on them to spend millions to claim unneeded domains just when corporate cash is scarce, and raising the risk of bidding wars among rival claimants to a trademarked name, such as .ibm, or .standard.
So far, ICANN is not backing down. “We will be addressing [the U.S. government] comments with the courtesy and care that we will apply to all other commenters,” responded Paul Levins, ICANN’s vice presidentcorporate affairs. Levins did signal, however, that the planned launch of the controversial new gTLDs in the first quarter of 2009 is likely to be postponed to closer to the end of 2009.
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