Users call new domains too confusing, costly
 
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Big business is venturing cautiously into the newest frontiers of cyberspace: the .biz and .info top-level domains due to launch this summer.
As the new registries start processing claims and taking early registrations, many companies are choosing to protect only a few of their top brand names and trademarks rather than duplicating their existing .com portfolios. That strategy may save legwork and money in the short term, but at the risk of inviting expensive disputes down the road.
Top corporate complaints about the new domains are their confusing legal processes and hefty fees.
"The business community is concerned about the cost, the complexity of the process, and the lack of standardization" in the registration process for .biz and .info names, says Marilyn Caid, director of Internet and e-commerce policy and advocacy at AT&T.
"It's not clear that .biz won't primarily be a clone of .com," Caid adds. "The goal of the new domains needs to be expansion of the name space."
Companies are particularly critical of .biz, which is designed to be the first global domain just for business. They are complaining about the process .biz uses to protect trademark owners and the costs associated with .biz services.
".Biz is treating large companies and [intellectual property] holders in general as a gold mine, and they're the shovel," says Antony Van Couvering, president of corporate-oriented registrar NameEngine. "There's a lot of concern about what the .biz IP claim service costs and what it gets you."
Van Couvering says most companies are filing claims for .biz names to protect their major trademarks and brand names but not for variations of those names.
"They're filing their name, the commonly used abbreviation, and maybe one or two of their big products," Van Couvering says. "They're not filing claims wholesale."
The trick for corporations is balancing their desire to limit the number of new domain names they have to buy and manage, while making sure that they don't leave themselves open to the threat of name speculators who will charge exorbitant fees in the future.
Corporate concerns about .biz and .info are being aired at an Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Stockholm, Sweden that ends today.
ICANN selected seven new top-level domains last November. The first two coming to market are .biz, which is restricted to commercial use, and .info, which is open to any business or individual. Due out soon are .pro for medical, accounting and legal professionals, and .name for individuals. The other new domains - .museum, .coop and .aero - are restricted to museums, co-operatives and aerospace companies, respectively.
In mid-May, ICANN finalized agreements with the registry operators for .biz and .info. NeuLevel, a joint venture between U.S. telephony administrator NeuStar and Australian domain name registrar MelbourneIT, runs the .biz registry. Afilias, a consortium of 19 domain name registrars, operates .info.
Registrars are taking advance orders for .biz and .info names even though the names won't be operational until October. NeuLevel says that about 1 million advance orders have been placed for .biz names, but it's unclear how many of the requested names are duplicates. Because .biz uses a lottery system to award names, some companies are submitting 100 requests for a single name.
Registrars report similar demand for .info names, with strong interest in generic terms that have proven popular in .com. The .info registry uses a random round-robin selection process among the registrars, who are charging companies thousands of dollars for an early-round pick. Alternatively, companies can register one name with multiple registrars for a lesser fee.
"Companies that tend to be active in .com and .net are the ones filing .biz and .info advance requests," says Marcello Hunter, director of retail sales for Network Solutions' Web identity group. "Industries such as real estate, financial services, retail, high-tech, consumer products and entertainment" are on the forefront.
Companies also are starting to file IP claims for .biz names under a process that started two weeks ago. For $90 per name, companies can file a claim for a .biz name that matches one of their trademarks. That fee ensures the company will be notified if someone else secures that name during the random selection process scheduled for August. The two companies have a month to resolve their dispute over the name before it becomes operational. If there's no resolution, the company that won the lottery gets the name but uses it at the risk of encountering future legal problems.
In general, the business community is disappointed with the .biz IP claims process and prefers the so-called sunrise registration period that .info offers to trademark holders. With .biz names, companies face an upfront, dispute-resolution proceeding to protect a trademark. With the .info sunrise period, trademark owners have a month to register names that match their trademarks before general registration begins.
"There's a significant amount of dissatisfaction with the .biz IP claims feature," says Bret Fausett, a domain name expert and a partner with Hancock, Rothert and Bundshoft. "Ninety dollars is a lot of money when . . . all you're getting is notice if someone wants to register a name that you've trademarked. You're not getting the name."
It's unclear how the .biz and .info registries will handle competing trademark claims from companies that share the same name, such as Delta Airlines and Delta Faucet. In these cases, the best strategy for corporations is to be the first one to claim the name.
Register.com reports that it processed several hundred .biz IP claim forms in the first week of availability. Most companies filed claims for 10 or 20 .biz names, but a few filed claims for 100 or more names.
"All of these companies have had experiences where they've had to pay a lot more for a domain name later," says Van Couvering. "From a long-term perspective, it makes sense to file a lot of claims now. But everyone has a budget, and they're going to do the most important names first."
Another controversial feature of the .biz registry is the extra fee - which could be as high as $500 - that NeuLevel will charge to lock in a name to ensure that it isn't accidentally transferred to another company in the future. The business community says .biz name buyers should automatically get protection against being "slammed" in this manner.
"People are a little peeved at the .biz registry lock," Van Couvering says. "It sounds great, but it's ludicrously over-priced."
In response to the complaints about .biz, NeuLevel executives say they are building a high-tech registry with advanced functionality and security. NeuLevel has created an LDAP-based database that can process updates in 15 minutes, compared with several hours with .com. They're also offering certificate-based authentication of .biz names to prevent hijacking and support for emerging technologies such as IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol.
".Biz is going to be the right place to find out more information about a name to facilitate e-commerce, support advanced search engines and to facilitate the convergence with telephone and wireless networks," says Doug Armentrout, CEO of NeuLevel.
Intellectual property experts advise companies to file IP claims on their key trademarks and to register those names in both .biz and .info. They expect companies will buy .biz names defensively and redirect them to existing .com sites. But they say .info sites could be used for additional corporate or product information.
"Most companies need another domain name like they need a hole in the head," Fausett says. "A lot of people think ICANN shouldn't be expanding the name space, but they are grumpily going along with it."
AT&T's strategy is typical, as the multinational telecommunications giant reviews its trademarks and the cost implications of protecting them in the new domains.
"We have a very large and complex portfolio of trademarks, and we're trying to develop a strategy for each of the [new domains] that will fit the characteristics of the domain and our ability to most effectively protect our brand," Caid says.
She says doing a bulk registration of AT&T's .com names in the other domains isn't necessary.
"It's a little frustrating that there's so much variance between the new names in the steps that trademark holders have to take," Caid says. "That adds cost, which eventually begins to affect the services we offer. It also adds complexity, which causes errors. We hope that out of the evaluation process of .biz and .info and others, a more standardized approach will begin to emerge."
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