June 5, 2001
Restraint urged on securing domain namesTara Teichgraeber
The Business
Journal
Internet domain name watchdog Naseem Javed addressed a Phoenix
convention crowd yesterday, telling business leaders not to worry about
securing trademark protections in new domain suffixes.
Javed, who consults for "Fortune" 500 companies about their identity
and naming strategies, spoke at the "Brand Slam" event hosted by Marcus
Evans Ltd. at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix.
Javed addressed concerns over securing additional domain names in the
new endings recently approved and partially released by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
The new domain endings -- .biz, .info, .name, .museum, .aero, .co-op --
have become a topic of concern and debate for trademark attorneys, whose
advice to business clients differs regarding whether new suffixes should
be secured. Doing so could help prevent identity confusion and trademark
infringements online, they say.
Javed disagrees.
"There is no need to open an endless list of new domains just to
protect your trademark," Javed told The Business Journal in a later
interview. "All this hype and worry is short-lived because how many .net's
do you see? If it isn't popular now do you think .biz will be?"
Many domain registration services have began taking applications for
.biz and .info names, which Javed dismissed as simply "big business."
His advice to business owners, especially small and mid-sized firms,
essentially is -- don't sweat it.
"Naming is a black and white issue," he said. "It should not be
confused with branding and graphics and corporate identity."
He added that it will be too costly to maintain a list of combinations
in all 240 domain suffixes, or top-level domains, that exist. That count
includes country codes such as .uk for the United Kingdom.
Javed is a frequently quoted ICANN critic and lecturer on domain
issues. He is president of a New York-based consulting firm, ABC Namebank
International.
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