Owners of trade marks and fictional characters are urged to make defensive registrations to stop cybersquatters from booking Web site and e-mail addresses featuring the new ".name" domain.
The .name top level domain name (TLD) is due to be launched in December 2001. Accredited Internet registrars will be accepting bookings for .name web site domain names and e-mail addresses until November 22. At this point the first batch of domain names will be randomly selected to "go live" on the Internet on 13 December this year (2001). Further batches will go live at two week intervals until the backlog is cleared and registration can begin in close to-real time. This is expected to occur sometime after March 2002.
The .name domain name can only be used by individuals, not organisations. An individual can claim a name if it is a Personal Name. A Personal Name is defined as a person's legal name, or a name by which they are commonly known. Personal Names can be:
the Personal Name of an individual; orthe Personal Name of a fictional character provided the registrant has rights to use that character's Personal Name as a trade mark.It is possible to add numbers to Personal Names, to differentiate them from other registrations that contain the same names.
Structure of .name Domain NamesA .name domain name has three levels. The first is the actual .name suffix, while the second and third levels are the first and last name. It will be possible to register full names (i.e., John.Doe.name). However surnames and first names alone will not be registrable (i.e. John.name or Doe.name).
A .name address will therefore look like: Firstname.Lastname.name or Lastname.Firstname.name.
Owners of .name domain names will also be able to use .name e-mail addresses by inserting the @ symbol between the two names. E-mail addresses will be either Firstname@Lastname.name or Lastname@Firstname.name.
Trade Mark ProtectionThe ".name" domain is owned and operated by Global Name Registry ("GNR").
All .name registrations may be challenged by third parties. However, to prevent potential trade mark abuse, GNR is offering two services during the domain booking period, before general registration begins. The first is a watching service for companies and individuals who wish to be alerted when particular words are registered in .name domain or e-mail addresses. The second is a defensive registration service for registered trade mark owners who want to prevent their marks from being registered by other parties.
Requests for these services will be accepted until 12 November. While the watching service will continue during general registration, defensive registrations will not be accepted again until the fourth quarter of 2002.
Competing .name ApplicationsCompetition for .name addresses is expected to be intense, particularly for common names and nicknames. Where more than one person requests the same domain name, GNR has stated that the name will be assigned on a random basis.
GNR may need to re-consider its approach relating to contested names following recent court action regarding the allocation of new domain names for the ".biz" domain space. A Los Angeles Court recently issued an interim injunction barring the random allocation of contested ".biz" domain names, where more than one company had filed an application for the name and paid a $2 administration fee. The lawsuit alleged that this process constituted an illegal lottery because it encouraged companies to apply numerous times to increase their chances of getting a desired domain, but did not refund the $2 fee if they did not get the domain. The Court found that this may constitute an illegal lottery. The Court ruling will only affect the 20 percent of .biz Internet addresses that had been requested by more than one applicant however. The remaining 80 percent of the new addresses are expected to "go live" on November 7 2001. Further registrations are intended to be allocated on a first in, first serve basis.
Further New DomainsThe .name domain is one of seven new-generation top level domain names that have been or will be added to the Internet domain name system in 2001. The other four TLDs in the pipeline are ".aero", for the aviation industry, ".coop", for co-operatives, ".museum", for museums, and ".pro" for professions. These follow on from the ".biz" and ".info" domain names added earlier this year.
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The .name domain name is due to go live in December 2001. Only individuals can use this domain.
It will be possible to register first and last names, such as John.Doe.name
For more information regarding the .name domain see http://www.gnr.com
This is a general summary only and should not be taken as a substitute for specific advice.
For further information on registering .name domain names please contact any of the following at Simpson Grierson:
Earl Gray, Partner, earl.gray@simpsongrierson.com
Alan Potter, Senior Associate, alan.potter@simpsongrierson.com
x-tech group Simpson Grierson
Web site: Simpson Grierson