Issue 46 - 9th November - This week: 1. gTLD Update 2. Industry News 3. Nic News 4. NetNames News 5. Fact of the week
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In this week's e-zine we bring you more information about .name, which has extended its application deadline. Remember that the delay gives intellectual property lawyers, brand managers and in-house counsel more time to protect trademarks and famous names.

The Sunrise period is the only time when defensive registrations can be made, so it's important orders are placed early. For more information, please go to www.gtld.com.

Kind regards,

Kind regards, Colette - N3lite@netnames.com

1. gTLD Update

.name deadline extended

The Registry operating the .name gTLD, aimed at individuals, this week announced that it had extended its deadlines for applying for defensive registrations and applications for the domain.

The deadline for Sunrise defensive registration submissions and the first landrush period of domain name registrations is now December 17.

.name will now resolve on the Internet at noon GMT on January 15, 2002.

.biz goes live

Real-time registrations for .biz went live on November 7, after a slight delay by the .biz registry in order to ensure it could handle the level of new registrations.

To recap, .biz is intended specifically for bona fide business or commercial use. Reasons to register your .biz domain include:

2. Industry News

US move for child-safe Internet space

The US Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet announced last week that it would consider establishing a child-friendly second-level domain, .kids.us, after ICANN last year voted against the creation of a .kids suffix.

The House bill says that only sites with material deemed appropriate for children under 13 could get a kids.us suffix. Participation would be voluntary and the sites would be continuously monitored, with parents able to restrict a child's computer to these sites only.

However, there is no guarantee that the kids.us proposal will ever see the light of day. As reported in last week's N3Lite, the department has awarded the .us contract to NeuStar Inc., however it is still unclear as to whether a kids-safe domain may violate the NeuStar contract.

ICANN critics oppose new recommendations

Critics of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) this week poured scorn on a proposal aimed at giving ordinary Internet users a say in the group's decision-making process.

The final report of the At-Large Study Committee (ALSC) recommends that individual domain name owners be permitted to elect one-third of ICANN's board of directors, which has the final say in all ICANN decisions. Critics argue this figure should be 50% as current proposals give too little power to members of the Internet community.

No decision will be taken until next year. Next week's ICANN meeting will now be dedicated to security issues. The ALSC proposal will be reviewed at the first 2002 meeting of ICANN, taking place in Ghana, where far fewer attendees are expected to be present.

Car manufacturers in cybersquatting rulings

Two cybersquatting cases for automotive manufacturers concluded this week with differing results.
German luxury car maker Porsche, was awarded the porsche-usa.com and (misspelled) porshe.com domains from two separate registrants based in Siberia and Belize, respectively. In both cases, the current holders of the domains failed to submit evidence and arguments to WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation).

In the case of porshe.com, the registrant was found to be a notorious 'typosquatter' who had already lost several cases at the hands of WIPO.

Japanese Mitsubishi Motors fared less well however, with the Korean registrant of mitsubishi-motors.com being allowed to retain the name. Despite the fact that the registrant also failed to respond to the complaint, and the domain was found to be 'confusingly similar' to Mitsubishi's trademark, the arbitrator of the cases ruled that email correspondence between Mitsubishi representatives and the registrant earlier in the year failed to prove that the domain had been registered in bad faith.

3. NIC News

Singapore launches dispute resolution policy

Singapore Network Information Centre (SNIC), the administrators of the .sg domain have launched the Singapore Domain Name Resolution Policy. The policy sets up a mediation framework for resolving domain disputes of conflicting parties, and aims to minimise the cost and timescales involved, which in the past have often been prohibitive.

Since the establishment of SNIC six years ago, there have been about 20 domain disputes, although none have gone to court.