Amazon's Quest for Web Names Draws Foes - WSJ.com: "Two publishing industry groups, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, are objecting to the online retailer's request for ownership of new top-level domain names that are part of a long-awaited expansion of the Web's addressing scheme. They argue that giving Amazon control over such addresses—which include ".book," ".author" and ".read"—would be a threat to competition and shouldn't be allowed. "Placing such generic domains in private hands is plainly anticompetitive," wrote Scott Turow . . ."
Protect Your Brand Against Cybersquatters On The New Internet | Jaburg Wilk - JDSupra: " . . . . Maybe you have heard that by the middle of this year, domain names ending in .app, .web, .pizza, .shop, .hotel, .restaurant and over a thousand others will become available for public registration. These new extensions are called generic top level domains, or gTLDs. If you are a brand owner and have given this any thought, you know that we are likely to see a cybersquatting frenzy like we did in the 90's. Computer geeks are likely to register domain names that begin with a brand name and end with the brand's industry. Some examples of cybersquatting that we might see are pappajohns.pizza, dillards.shop, westin.hotel or mcdonalds.restaurant. Cybersquatters may buy these domain names in hopes that brand owners will pay a premium to buy them back or with the intention of diverting Internet traffic to their own websites. One protection for trademark owners is the Trademark Clearinghouse . . . "
More details about URS and National Arbitration Forum - Domain Name Wire: " . . . ICANN announced that it appointed The National Arbitration Forum as an administrator of the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS). URS is a faster and cheaper way to take down an infringing domain name than a UDRP. While faster and cheaper, it doesn’t result in the transfer of a domain when the complainant wins. ICANN posted the two page memorandum of understanding between it and National Arbitration Forum (NAF), but it didn’t give many details. . . . NAF has not announced pricing for URS yet, but it will be between $300-$500. . . ."
ICANN allows hundreds of new Internet domain suffixes | Internet & Media - CNET News: " . . . The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, announced today that hundreds of new Web address suffixes will roll out this year, according to the Associated Press. This will be the largest growth of Internet addresses since the 1980s. The Web has become saturated with ".com" addresses, which has made people and businesses petition ICANN for new names. Foreign languages will be the first to get new monikers, according to the Associated Press. Next, brand names like ".cadillac" will be rolled out, then regional addresses like ".vegas" will come next. Generic and the most proposed suffixes -- such as ".app," ".music," and ".tech" -- will come last because several groups have bid on the names and these groups have to come to an agreement before addresses can be registered. . . ."
Internet Governance Map | ICANN
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