New Internet domain name extensions and Trademarks

New Internet domain name options present both costs and opportunities: " . . . . the new system means that for the first time, domain names will take on trademark significance. This is important because it means trademark granting authorities will have to rethink their historical policies of refusing trademark protection for domain names on the grounds those names carried no independent trademark significance. That simply will not be the case when whole trademarks can be placed to the right of the dot. And as the world’s trademark offices begin accepting applications for registrations of gTLDs, we will see expense associated with filing, prosecuting and maintaining the associated registrations. Moreover, with the gTLD system being global, but trademark systems being national, we can expect a high premium on cooperation and consistency in the practices undertaken by the world’s trademark offices. . . ." (read more at link above)

StorefrontBacktalk » Blog Archive » Amazon May Not Get Its .Amazon Domain-Name Extension After All: "A lot of what the GAC, the ANA and other objectors are saying sounds like just common sense. But for some reason, no one at ICANN thought there would be a problem with .book, .toys, .flowers, .food, .grocery, .shop or .store being tied up for exclusive use by one retailer (and those are just the most obviously retail-oriented TLDs that the applicants want exclusive use for). . . .

Are you dialing back domain investments as you wait for new TLDs? - Domain Name Wire: "Tucows filed its 10-Q yesterday. In the report, Tucows suggested that domain name investors may be proceeding cautiously with aftermarket domain purchases this year as they wait for new top level domain names:

We have two primary buyers for our domain names – domain investors and businesses. While businesses domain sales continue to grow, we have begun to see evidence of domain investors interest slowing as they attempt to assess the impact the introduction of new gTLD’s may have on their businesses. Accordingly, until the impact of new gTLD’s can be appropriately assessed, we will be shifting our efforts towards appealing more to businesses while continuing to work with domain investors."

RIPE: Attacks on domain name systems are on the increase - The H Security: News and Features: " . . . Several registries – including VeriSign, ICANN, and the Dutch SIDN and French AfNIC registries – have admitted that they no longer respond to every request that is sent to their authoritative servers. Many experts consider this to be the largest threat by far – powerful DNS resources being targeted to launch attacks. Even cryptographic DNSSEC domain security measures are being exploited. With the appropriate keys, victims are hit with a number of responses that is several hundred times higher than the number of requests that can be forged via the systems of unsuspecting third parties or cheap cloud servers. So far, existing surplus capacities have usually protected the internet from worst-case scenarios. Now, central infrastructure service operators are among those whose warnings are becoming louder in response to an increasing number of attacks. . . ."

more news links below

Follow @expvccom