In a move that could make it much easier for direct marketers’ customers to find them online, a number of new suffixes for Web site names were approved on Sunday by the organization that oversees changes on the Internet.
The Internet has a limited number of suffixes now, including “.com,” “.mil,” “.int,” “.gov,” “org” and “.net,” along with two-letter suffixes assigned to countries. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has not added any new suffixes, known as top-level domains, since the 1980s.
The resolution by ICANN at its board meeting in Yokohama, Japan on Sunday, would allow a number of suffixes beyond the “.com” suffix most companies are restricted to now. A shoe e-tailer could use “.shoe” as its suffix, for instance.
The resolution did not spell out the number of new suffixes, or what the parameters might be in assigning them.
One reason ICANN is adding more top-level domains is exhaustion. “It’s much like adding new area codes,” said Jeff Richards, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Internet Alliance, a fully separate subsidiary of the Direct Marketing Association. This is good news for marketers because it would make it easier for consumers to search the Web for specific topics, especially if marketing categories were brought together in clusters.
But, because the resolution doesn’t spell out a number of details, direct marketers also have reason to be cautious. One of those details has to do with trademark infringement. Conferees discussed how to handle a request for “amazon.shop,” for example, and whether it would infringe on the name “amazon.com.”
The resolution only calls on companies making applications for new names to show how it is that they would resolve possible trademark problems. It doesn’t spell out how trademark difficulties would be handled.
“There’s a concern that ICANN should be taking a more measured approach and then taking stock about whether infringement should be a real concern,” Richards said. “Direct marketers could suffer if trademark is weakened.”
ICANN is accepting proposals for those seeking to sponsor or operate a new top-level domain name. The group will announce the selections by Dec. 31, 2000.
Network
