ROUNDTABLE
no may be a valid decision. Te key is making an informed decision, oſten no one has told them that.
SK: I now get e-mails every day now from law firms around the world saying “have you heard of the new gTLD program? You must apply for one”. When I talk to them to see how much they know, they’ve oſten never even read the application form. Tey think they understand the process, but sometimes they have no clue. We talk regularly on panels and half the audience are lawyers from firms asking about the process because they’re going back to their clients and advising based on going to one panel. Every firm says they have an expertise in this area, and they just don’t.
LG: From my point of view we’ll see two main things. I think one is long term. Tere will be a shiſt away from endless registrations of your name everywhere if you have your own .brand. We’re also grappling with what is the short term problem in a year: how many of those 500 keyword registries are we going to invest time, effort and money to sign up to? If we have a single florist-related domain name on our book, are we going to register under .flowers when it could cost a $2,000 minimum deposit and a day of work signing up to all the admin?
AC: You're right, registrars will have to take that decision for each commercial gTLD. As a domain reseller, the level of investment may be different but ultimately we still have to have that same decision to make.
NWS: Tat’s the acid test isn’t it, whether anyone wants to be a registrar for a particular new gTLD.
DT: It’s driven by registrars and registries, for the former it’s a great way of making money but if there’s too many and the fees are too high, then what happens? So what is the ideal number? ICANN’s ideal amount is the number they can evaluate and delegate in a timely and orderly manner, but it’s a new world.
www.worldipreview.com
If you were say
“WHEN I TALK TO THEM TO SEE HOW MUCH THEY KNOW, THEY’VE OFTEN NEVER EVEN READ THE APPLICATION FORM. THEY THINK THEY UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS, BUT SOMETIMES THEY HAVE NO CLUE.”
, have your requirements for external advice changed significantly—do you think brands will need different services from external people?
Stacey
SK: One of the hard things in this space for firms, in particular, is education. Very few firms have people who go to ICANN meetings. Tere are a lot of meetings all over the world. It can be expensive, but they’re going to have to go. If you want to really advise on this space—and it isn’t just the successful application and then you are done with it—you need to know the issues, even if that means a lot of non-billable time. You need to know the people at ICANN, ISPs, registries, registrars, board members. From a brand owner’s perspective you need your advisors to understand this world, you need the ability to hook into wider legal knowledge, but also it’s the technology side and understanding the complexity. You can’t have people who have just picked up a paper.
NWS: It’s very specialised, it’s really complicated, and it’s non-intuitive.
, a middling to large fashion
brand with a lot of online trade, and various recognisable trademarks, would this be an asset or a hassle?
ACS: For that kind of brand, the answer is yes we have to do it because that is the way we have to go and we’ll work it out on the way.
DT: Te important thing is that it has to be an informed decision, may be yes, may be no, but to look at the process, run through it, look at pros and cons, potential threats and decide whether you can deal with an auction. If you end up in an auction, you may need a $10 million budget, maybe more. If you just think, no it’s $185,000, it’s a ripoff by ICANN — that’s not an informed decision and you could be a missing a unique opportunity!
LG: You also have to ask if you might want to do it in the future. But if I was coming down on the side of no I’d get it signed off at a much higher level!
AC: If your primary reason is defensive, I think you should rethink the strategy. Tere's so much you can do with a .brand, but if it's a purely defensive registration and will only ever be a defensive TLD, frankly, I would take that application money and use it for other defensive purposes and achieve similar results without the burden of operating a TLD.
SK: It’s likely the application process won’t open up again for another five to seven years and a lot of your competitors are going to be there, so it’s a risk. It might be a flop, but it’s likely that it won’t be. You need to consider if it is right for your business; it is definitely not for everyone. If it is right, however, you need to get moving now. You don’t want to miss out and be behind your competitors and the market by eight to 10 years. That’s a lifetime on the Internet. n
Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 1 23
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