International Registries

["ZZZZPICB" <ZZZZPICB@brains.com>]

     It seems to me that a primary problem that will be addressed stems 
     from the fact that about 87% of the world's domain names are 
     registered in the .com upper level domain.  Will the introduction of 
     up to 150 new upper level domains reduce the cachet of a .com address? 
      There presently are alternative registries where names can be 
     registered.  However, most businesses prefer to have a .com address.  
     In part, this reflects US dominance of the internet.  As more people 
     and businesses come online in Europe, Asia and Africa perhaps the 
     prestige value of a .com address would naturally diminish in any 
     event.
     
     Would .corp, and .biz generic upper level domains relieve the pressure 
     much in the same way the introduction of 888 exchanges has expanded 
     the number of available toll free phone numbers?  Or would it force 
     trademark owners to register their names in even more domains?  Under 
     a new system would coke need to register in 150 new worldwide generic 
     domains?  Or fight 100 different people who registered coke as their 
     domain name to trade on coke's trademark rights?  If multiple 
     registries are allowed to accept domain names, should there be a 
     uniform set of guidelines governing trademark rights?  And how would a 
     new system address international trademark disputes, since trademark 
     rights typically are territorial in nature and have no 
     extraterritorial effect?  Perhaps the existing country-code system has 
     more merit than people would like to acknowledge, and instead of 
     creating new generic domains we should be encouraging new registrants 
     to register in the .us, .ca or .au upper level domains?
     
     I am not advocating a particular position, but merely raising 
     questions to stimulate discussion.
     
          Ian Ballon
          Brown & Bain
          1755 Embarcadero Road, Suite 200 
          Palo Alto, California 94303

          Phone: (415) 856-9411
          Fax:   (415) 856-6061

          Email: iballo00@counsel.com