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[comments-gtlds] How to introduce new TLDs
To make sure new TLDs don't repeat the .com problem, even a
little, we must model new TLDs after successful and time-tested trademark law.
The summary is included below. A more extensive
description of how this can be done can be found at http://www.design-and-hosting.com/nameplan/index.htm
This plan will:
1. Provide great domain names for whoever wants
them.
2. Keep the availability of great domain names high for years
and decades to come.
3. Prevent cybersquatting among the new TLDs.
4. Aleviate cybersquatting in the .com, .org and .net
space.
5. Provide a match between domain names and trademarks, so
that current trademark holders can get a domain name that
matches the scope of their trademarks.
6. Resolve the problem arising from multiple trademark
registrations of the same word by different companies.
7. Make it easier to search for content in the
Internet.
8. Bootstrap itself into the public eye.
9. Provide a way of avoiding disputes, largely by making it easy for
reasonable people to foresee the outcome of 99% of disputes if they went to
court.
10. For the gray areas that remain, provide a way of resolving disputes
according to principles.
11. Provide for an international solution.
12. ... and more.
In summary, here's how it works:
1. All new TLDs are chartered TLD. Applicants should be able
to suggest their own TLD's as needed. They should be as specific as possible.
When all languages are considered, the number of new TLDs could reach a few
hundred thousand.
2. Create a non-profit organization that issues new TLDs and
domain names within these TLDs. This organization will be similar to the
trademark side of the US Patent and Trademark Office. Its main function would be
to make sure new TLDs and domain names follow certain rules. A major part
of the organization's day-to-day activities will be computer and human
examination of domain name applications and archiving evidence of use of
domain names. It will be fully funded by reasonable domain name
registrations.
3. Allow for both economy registrations that have not been
examined by a human examiner and more secure registration that have been
examined by a human examiner
4. Require that TLDs are generic in nature. They must describe
a topic, a product or service, but not any individual or
company.
5. Require that all domain name applicants in the new
chartered TLDs agree to certain rules, including:
A. The only right they get by initially registering the name
is provisional right to put up a web site and start getting traffic. If no
website is present after six months, their registration will expire. The time
can be extended a maximum of four times for two months each time, by paying
the appropriate fee for each extension. The fees for later extensions are
higher.
B. The don't have any right to the domain name until they
start getting traffic on a website that has content appropriate for the
chartered TLD. A coming soon page doesn't count.
C. The right to the domain name exists in the people who have
visited the site, so that they can expect to find it there again. Thus, the
right to the name is the result of traffic, as evidenced by log
files.
D. Their web site must have something to do with the purpose
of the chartered TLD. An irrelevant website doesn't count. Pointing to an
existing website counts only if this is the ultimate purpose of the domain name
and the domain name is a natural alternate entry point to the site.
E. Their use of the name is subject to and must not interfere
with the rights of a trademark holder who has a trademark in the goods and
services described by the chartered TLD. (This means that the 101
owners of the register mark "OMEGA" can all have nonconflicting omega.something
sites, and people will still be able to create other omega.something
sites.)
F. Their domain name must identify them in some way. That
means simply that the domain name can not be a generic word or superlative
that everyone in the chartered TLD should have the right to use. (This part can
be enforced by computer.)
G. Adverse decisions of the examining organization can be
resolved in several ways (see the above link for a list of them)
6. More is require. See the full description.
Enough has been said about the problems of gTLDs
to show that they are a bad idea. Chartered TLDs solve many of the problems
but don't go far enough. The only way to solve this TLD problem is to follow the
lead of the trademark office and trademark law by (1) basing the right to domain
names in the public (surfers) and (2) providing an examination system analogous
to trademark examination. These two principles, when properly implemented, will
have numerous benefits, including providing a match between current trademarks
and future domain names, making great names available to future generations, and
making cybersquatting impractical or impossible.
Peter H Rehm