Re: Comments on Higgs

[Simon Higgs <simon@higgs.com>]

At 4:07 PM -0800 11/26/96, Michael Dillon wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Nov 1996, Simon Higgs wrote:
>
> > > I think there is need to work out a better naming scheme.
> >
> > Go for it! Latin, greek, anything, but it should be consistent across
> > all 42 categories. Remember cat.42 (Misc.) is labelled .COM.
>
> No it isn't. The .COM domain is a historical domain that has nothing
> whatsoever to do with trademark categories.

Read the draft. These TLDs do not map exisitng trademarks. The
international schedule of goods and services is used as a template
only. Nothing more. .COM is already a miscellaneous grouping of
commercial entities, and to expand it without destroying the namespace
requires a careful design that will limit conflicts. It already has a
place. The others don't.

> By placing this categorization
> scheme inside an iTLD named .MARCA we make it possible for the .MARCA
> registry to automatically register a company with one or more domain names
> representing one or more different ways of identifying a category. For
> instance WIDGET.MISC.MARCA and WIDGET.42.MARCA could both be assigned
> to a company with the international trademark "widget" in category 42.
>

This is no different than what is proposed. It is exactly the same
mapping one level down. A single TLD will have to be shared. With 42
TLDs, it's possible to distribute them amongst registries until sharing
protocols become established.

Plus, based upon public consumption of .COM @ $100 vs. .US for free,
any solution solely at the third level has already proven itself to be
ineffective (read useless).

> If more than one company holds that trademark then the .MARCA registry
> could operate a web server at http://www.widget.misc.marca and ...42.marca
> that reference all companies holding that trademark. And the .MARCA
> registry could also operate a mail server at widget.misc.marca and
> widget.42.marca that bounces back all email with a note explaining how to
> contact the trademark holders via email.
>

Are you proposing a directory service based upon an existing trademark
database? That's a whole other animal.


Simon

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