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Trademarking .generics - the .bank Fiasco!

• Comment posted Jan 21, 2012 1:03 am PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Konstantinos, DomainIncite is reporting the .bank mark on the US supplemental register has been canceled. While this has dealt with the single issue you have drawn attention to, it doesn't even begin to solve the underlying problem.

• Comment posted Jan 18, 2012 7:07 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Konstantinos, I am very curious as to why you are surprised and as a result now seek to castigate the USPTO. It’s not like it wasn’t obvious what would happen and it’s not like .bank will be the only one…

The 5 Stages of gTLD Shock

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2012 4:42 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  It's easy to criticise but ICANN is in an unenviable position of having to enable competition and innovation without preconceived bias, while catering to the needs of the various stakeholders it represents. It is one-size-fits-all because ICANN needs to be…

• Comment posted Jan 05, 2012 3:58 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Wil… What we can definitely say is If new .brands take off they will advantage some of the most economically advantaged incumbents. (Think .ibm .dell but what about .hp?) If users come to see .brands as superior then .brands will…

Why the Lawsuit Against .XXX Maybe the Best Sales Tool Ever For New gTLD Applicants

• Comment posted Nov 23, 2011 10:40 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Ray, The issue is about ICANN awarding any entity an implicit DNS branding advantage and as a result forcing others in the same market place to try and compete without that advantage. If some of those acquiring new gTLDs already…

• Comment posted Nov 22, 2011 12:40 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  @Antony Ok, let’s take the Kellogg's example Kellogg's can easily get TM protection for “Kellogg's” for selling corn flakes. Getting protection for “corn flakes” for selling “corn flakes” is more questionable, because it would allow Kellogg's to buy an advantage…

New TLD Spotted - .FUD

• Comment posted Nov 11, 2011 10:25 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Myth 1 – ICANN created the new gTLD program with little or no input from brand owners. FACT: Intellectual property and business advocates have been heavily involved at every stage of the new gTLD process. A lot of IP advocates…

Why Brands Need Their Own TLD - The Mulberry-Sale Site that Scammed Me

• Comment posted Oct 18, 2011 11:16 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  There is a strong possibility that new gTLDs will make the problem worse at least in the short term. Why? Because through time and usage people have become accustomed to www.brand.com or brand.com and as a result many consumers are…

Bringing Order to The World's Cybrary: New TLDs Make Sense to Organize the Chaos of the Internet

• Comment posted Oct 10, 2011 10:09 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Imagine every big brand selling online had their official space You mean like .hp? I can imagine a .dell and .ibm, but that doesn’t seem very equitable really does it? This change to internet life is a lot to swallow,…

War of Words - the gTLD Weaponry

• Comment posted Aug 22, 2011 10:26 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  VW and GM (not eligible) may be at a branding disadvantage to BMW, AUDI, FORD, DODGE, JEEP or even TOYOTA. Consider companies with longer names. How will Morgan-Chase or Wells Fargo compete with a competitor able to apply for a…

ICANN Finds Its Voice

• Comment posted Aug 10, 2011 8:34 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  One needs to ask why some economic systems are more successful over the longer term than others? The answer ultimately is probably fairness. If those in control use valuable resources for personal gain or for the benefit of their friends…

The Internet Community Says Thank You to ICANN for New TLDs

• Comment posted Jun 30, 2011 10:35 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  The internet community had been consulted in 1985 about the introduction of .com and the other gTLDs, and they at the time believed that everything should have wedged up underneath the ccTLDs. Really? They must have been very advanced for…

Decision Day for ICANN: The End of the Beginning, or the Beginning of the End?

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2011 1:46 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  At the end of the nearly 3-hour hearing, one Congressman pressed the witnesses to explain why we needed any new TLDs. I gave a two-part answer. First, it's hard to see how we continue to grow the Internet without ever…

New ICANN Requirements for New gTLDs Are Irrelevant

• Comment posted Jun 09, 2011 9:08 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  If the primary reason is speculation the whole process will collapse into a horrible mess and it will probably be the end of the ICANN model. Which is kind of ironic given the numbers of ICANN staff and people involved/responsible…

The gTLD Boondoggle

• Comment posted Jun 01, 2011 1:47 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  So what's left to justify thousands of new TLDs? Not much. Unfortunately, ICANN is so hypnotized by the endless millions of dollars they expect to make, and so overrun with people with a financial interest in new TLDs that the…

Will Blocking a TLD Fracture the Internet?

• Comment posted Apr 13, 2011 4:24 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Limiting controversial" TLDs in order to appease that impulse, in the name of preserving a single root, is illusory (alternate roots already exist), not likely to matter (people will get out to the "real" Internet somehow), and it doesn't really…

ICANN Sets June Target for New gTLD Program Launch

• Comment posted Apr 01, 2011 12:45 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Dave, Afilias has done quite of lot of work to support IDN solutions for IDN domains, IDN TLds and IDN Emails IDNBlog.com has an interesting Q & A with John Kane of Afilias

Why ICANN Isn't Being Very Sensible: Part I - .brands

• Comment posted Mar 16, 2011 1:32 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Kieren wrote This conversation has been had 100 times and raising it again now serves no real useful purpose. Kieren arguing that only ICANN insiders should have standing to speak for ICANNs 7 billion or so constituents doesn’t get to…

On the Introduction of new Top Level Domains into the Domain Name System

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2011 10:23 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  @Vint Absent such a mechanism, it is conceivable that administrations will attempt to block troubling TLDs in some fashion, leading to increased fragmentation of connectivity as seen from the domain name perspective. This is a very important issue which the…

The U.S. "Scorecard" for Brussels: Draconian Trademark Rules & The End of Private-Sector Leaders

• Comment posted Feb 07, 2011 10:15 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Constantine I chose .fashion as an illustration simply because it was one you chose to give as an example in the DomainNameWire thread <a href=http://domainnamewire.com/2010/06/22/will-icann-insiders-get-leg-up-with-new-tlds/#comment-641728>message #14</a> and your subsequent endorsement of my reply in <a href=http://domainnamewire.com/2010/06/22/will-icann-insiders-get-leg-up-with-new-tlds/#comment-642234>message #17</a>. @gpmgroup - I…

• Comment posted Feb 06, 2011 6:15 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  However, can you tell me what inherent flaws the new gTLD program has that the current operational TLDs, like .COM, do not have as well as what needs to be done to address them. It is easy to criticize ICANN…

• Comment posted Feb 02, 2011 11:10 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  I am convinced that ICANN will do what is best for the Internet and the public interest. Governments serve their respective communities based on their nationality. The Internet stretches beyond these boundaries and serves the global Internet community as one…

New gTLD Auctions and Potential Unintended Consequences

• Comment posted Jan 26, 2011 12:29 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Thoughtful analysis Michael Isn’t the actual problem much deeper and with the allocation itself rather than the actual allocation mechanism? .org .net and .biz allocations were all to entities NOT seeking to compete within the sting. Doesn't each of your…

New gTLDs and the Power of "Because"

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2011 5:45 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Michael, There are fundamental structural flaws in the current GNSO new gTLD proposal and as such, a responsible ICANN would be sending the DAG/AGB back to the GNSO rather than trying to gloss over these failings by trying to out…

A New Internet Extension Can Compete with .COM

• Comment posted Nov 06, 2010 1:18 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Existing businesses don't have to sit on one web site. The web site itself does not have to be limited to just one domain name. Getting the majority of companies to invest in more than one website per trading entity…

• Comment posted Nov 05, 2010 11:43 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Thanks for the link to your article. And thank you for stepping up to the plate and giving examples you feel stand a good chance of being successful. I am curious as to why four letters would be a limiting…

• Comment posted Nov 05, 2010 10:02 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Johnny Du wrote No doubt, .com will still be the king. That doesn't mean a new TLD can't compete with .com in its targeted area/market. In many countries, ccTLDs are doing better than .com. I won't be surprised that someday…

• Comment posted Nov 05, 2010 6:40 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  After all, one of the main reasons for the expansion of Internet extensions is to provide a viable alternative for Web sites that are unable to register their desired .com or cannot afford to buy one on the secondary market.…

MOPO - The Latest Speed Bump on ICANN's New gTLD Superhighway

• Comment posted Sep 12, 2010 10:22 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  I think it would be fair to say there is community agreement that new gTLDs provide entry and incumbents should not be allowed to prevent competition. And I think it would also be fair to say there is community agreement…

New gTLDs and Their Hidden Costs: Part 2

• Comment posted Aug 09, 2010 12:39 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Shawn, I chose my words carefully- If names to right of the dot become perceived to be superior to second level names ICANN will have managed to create a very restrictive and inequitable Super league for a limited number of…

• Comment posted Aug 09, 2010 11:53 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  John, I think there is a huge difference between trying to assess and redress possible injustices in existing systems and inadvertently creating the potential for much larger and more widespread injustices through a proposed extension to a system which is…

• Comment posted Aug 06, 2010 6:31 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  There are other more serious costs and implications to allowing corporate / brand gTLDs; because if they are successful they will destroy the world wide level playing field the Internet has created. A single layer model to the right of…

ICANN's Economic Study - It Depends

• Comment posted Jul 22, 2010 11:17 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  The problem is Antony your primary motivation is to get new gTLDs implemented. When the economics directly affect your company you are not slow in coming forward to offer your opinion to try and influence ICANN’s thinking in direct favour…

What the ICANN Brussels Meeting Means for New gTLDs

• Comment posted Jul 06, 2010 6:05 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Antony that is very selective quoting of Charlotte Walters. For example Charlotte Walters response to John McCormac's question. John McCormac's - "Will new gTLDs be too dependent on brand protection registrations for a major part of the revenue and how…

ICANN and Its Responsibilities to the Global Public Interest

• Comment posted Mar 07, 2010 1:05 am PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Constantine, Do you believe if Universal Music or Time Warner see value in .music you will have a realistic opportunity of acquiring the rights to run .music? And if you are unsuccessful in getting ICANN to award .music to you,…

ICANN Releases New gTLD Applicant Guidebook ...Would Apple Need Permission from China for .MAC?

• Comment posted Oct 05, 2009 10:57 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Caterpillar and HP are not so fortunate as to be able to ask the Chinese Government for a letter of approval.

Trademark Owners Beware: Cybersquatting Spreads to Twitter

• Comment posted Sep 18, 2009 6:34 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  By opposing new top-level domains, and thereby encouraging the palpable demand for new names to leak out of the DNS system and into private namespaces, trademark owners are inviting a world of woe upon themselves. Instead of one uniform policy,…

Corporate Domain Registration Practices in Light of New gTLDs

• Comment posted Aug 23, 2009 7:53 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Elisa, I respect that you have a product/service to sell and an audience to pander to but this is yet again skewed statistics being done to prejudice the reader.  Info and Biz are generic TLDs, the others are sponsored.  Being…

Realizing There's More to Life Than .COM, Europe and Asia Already Do

• Comment posted Aug 14, 2009 11:26 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Somehow, it's become acceptable that trivial database entries are worth a fortune.  The only way they have become so is artificial scarcity Creating new gTLDs like .nyc .shop .store .movie etc. won’t have any significant effect on .com prices. It’s…

• Comment posted Aug 12, 2009 12:23 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  81.6 million .com 12.3 million .net 7.7 million .org 5.2 million .info 2.0 million .biz 1.6 million .us (.com reached 1.6 million registrations in 1997) Given there are currently over 50 times more .com than .us registrations. Why do you…

Accepting New Top-Level Domains As Suffix-Less Cyber Brands

• Comment posted Aug 04, 2009 2:28 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Our research clearly points to some 87,000 serious corporate candidates for the new gtld. $185,000 * 87,000 = $16,095,000,000 setup fees $25,000 * 87,000 = $2,175,000,000 annual revenues Compared with $10 * 87,000 = $870,000 or so using the existing…

• Comment posted Aug 03, 2009 11:11 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Whereas those same people might well see .company as immune to all of those because: - just one to register - just one to administer - single place for your brand - nobody will ever get .c0mpany And they might…

Hotels.com Denied Trademark, Too Generic Says Court

• Comment posted Jul 27, 2009 8:42 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  EasyDNS FastDNS FreeDNS probably wasn't the best illustrative example, EasyDNS SuperDNS HyperDNS may have been a better illustrative examples of marks with a specific disclaimer to the 'DNS' component.

• Comment posted Jul 27, 2009 1:01 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  If the trademark had been awarded (much in the same way as ICANN awarding rights for .hotels in the above example), the trademark confers advantage on a single entity and this disadvantages others looking to compete.  You're assuming that in…

• Comment posted Jul 26, 2009 4:57 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  It is a very sensible ruling. One of the fundamentals of Trademark Law is not to give a single entity advantage over all others by allowing descriptive generic terms that do not distinguish the goods and services from all others.…

What are TLDs Good For?

• Comment posted Jul 04, 2009 12:08 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Just to add .com isn’t sold or advertised by VeriSign. It is sold and branded implicitly by virtually every major corporation using it day in day out across all their communications. It’s that simple. The success of the internet is…

ICANN's gTLD Proposal Hits a Wall: Now What?

• Comment posted Jan 01, 2009 12:06 pm PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  ICANN is an amazing participatory global multi-stakeholder organization which truly deserves to survive, but one has to wonder what will happen in September?  How could such an ill considered and poorly drafted key proposal document for underpinning the very future…

Do We Need Two Internets?

• Comment posted May 16, 2008 8:20 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  “But unlike Zittrain I think that regulation can help, and that putting control in the hands of democratically elected governments is far better than putting it in the hands of corporations.” I think ICANN is shortly going to be at…

MSN Messenger is Censoring .info Domains

• Comment posted Aug 07, 2007 1:51 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Suresh Ramasubramanian said: That's no more censorship than spam filtering is censorship of email.  They do need to be a bit less overbroad, perhaps, but given the horrible state of infestation that .info has (a few ccTLDs are in even…

Will Splogs Kill .INFO Domains?

• Comment posted Aug 28, 2006 11:49 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  Representives from the major engines have stately publically that they do not weight on TLD. In our tests we have not seen any weighting on the TLD in the link. What matters is the content at the end of the…

• Comment posted Aug 28, 2006 1:42 am PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  This isn’t a stretch, since many search engines give bonus value to links from .edu domains. is a common fallacy. The Engines are agnostic towards the .TLD part of incoming links.

• Comment posted Aug 27, 2006 4:55 pm PDT — by Paul Tattersfield
  A search of the engines for 'Spain' A .info site is No 3 out of 875,000,000 pages [url="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=spain&meta;=" title="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=spain<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=spain</a< <strong<A .info site is No 1 out of 311,000,000 pages</strong< <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=spain&fr=FP-tab-web-t500&toggle=1&cop;=&ei=UTF-8" " title="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=spain"]http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=spain[/url] A .info site is No 1 out…

Ask Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains

• Comment posted Jan 18, 2006 11:23 am PST — by Paul Tattersfield
  Hi Vint, Do you think there is a possibility that expanding the number of gTLDs in the name of competition will paradoxically have the opposite effect? In that for the majority of people .com will become even more entrenched as…