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Domain Names: A Rush
A virtual land rush begins this summer. You could call it "Geeks
Go for Gold!," but "geeks" is an unkind term, and
plenty of lawyers, business people and speculators will be rushing
out to stake their claims on the virgin real estate of .biz and
.info domain names. The sale of those domain names begins this
summer, with Biz and Info soon competing for our attention along
with .com, .net, .org, .edu and .gov.
Before you shrug off Biz and Info as new domain names that are
dumb because nobody well use them or care, consider: eight years
ago, 99.999% of us hadn't purchased a single domain name. According
to our research, Network Solutions just began selling domain names
8 years ago. A few folks with great foresight (and some luck)
bought a domain name for $35 a year (or less) and later sold it
for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Therefore, eight years from
now, a Biz domain name might be precious indeed. Here are three
more reasons to take Biz and Info seriously: protecting trademarks,
getting a good address and winning the mind-share war.
Protecting trademarks is a serious business, so you can be sure
that Fortune 1000 companies, and thousands more, will be planning
to buy domain names such as microsoft.biz and ibm.info to protect
their trademarks. Does your organization have any trademarks,
registered or non-registered, which it needs to protect?
According to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), "Beginning in late May through the beginning
of July, Biz will offer a fee-based service for businesses to
submit trademark claims before the application process is opened."
Then, in July ... "through late September, Biz will open
the application process for businesses. Businesses will submit
their applications through registrars; these applications will
be randomly elected in batches and awarded. Businesses can submit
an unlimited number of applications but there will be a $2.00
fee for each application for a Biz name. "
Regarding Info domain name purchases, ICANN explains, "Beginning
in late June and ending in late July, Afilias will offer a 30
day "sunrise" period during which anyone with a registered
national trademark can apply through a registrar for a .info domain
name corresponding to the trademark." For details, go to
the ICANN Website, http://www.icann.org.
Millions of domain names can't be protected by trademarks because
the words themselves can't be trademarked. For this discussion,
let's divide these unprotected domain names into two categories:
generic names and names of businesses that don't have and can't
get a trademark.
Some businesses have names that can't be trademarked, but they'll
still want to go after the Biz address. Spectrum Printing might
be an example. Spectrum Printing & Graphics, www.spectrumprinting.com,
is located in Bedford, Massachusetts. Spectrum Printing, www.specprinttucson.com,
is located in Tucson, Arizona. Spectrum Printing in Tucson, Arizona
might decide www.spectrumprinting.biz sounds like a great Website address. Or maybe it'll be that Spectrum Business Printing,
in Antioch, California, will wind up with the Biz address.
In addition to protecting a trademark and/or getting a logical
Website address, another reason to pay attention to Biz is mind
share, or positioning. According to Ries and Trout in their famous
book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, "In the long run,
every market becomes a two-horse race." Setting aside .gov,
.org and .edu from consideration for a moment, we might conclude
that we'll only have room in our minds for two top level domains.
Ries and Trout also say that it's best to be first, which is part
of why .com will always be top-of-mind for us. That leaves room
for just one more. Given that Net has confused people and Info
doesn't say much, my money's on Biz Therefore, and remember, you
read it here first, even when trademark protection is not the
issue, businesses should try to buy Biz just to own the turf and
get an edge in the battle for mind share, or positioning.
That still leaves, by the way, millions of generic domain names
up for grabs. You can use your own imagination, but my guess is
that the rush will include thousands of people trying to acquire
ownership of domain names such as sex.biz, money.biz, and love.info
(more on this later).
Whether there's gold in them there names is another issue, of
course, but the $90 (the projected one-year price) for a Biz domain
name is less than some people spend on lottery tickets during
the course of a year, and we know that the odds of winning the
lottery are, at best, 1 in 5 Million+. The real gamblers, however,
will be the businesses that stay on the sidelines and figure that
another $90 a year for a domain name just isn't worth it.
This article first appeared as a column written
by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for the Inside Tucson
Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.
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