Domain Name Registrations
The IT guru in your company comes barging into your office, excited about something only a tech person can get excited about. Once you are able to sift through their technical mumble jumble, you understand that the gist of the message is this:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) has made new generic top level domain names (“gTLDs”) available to the public. We’re all familiar with the .com, .org or .net type of domain names. ICANN stated that it will be releasing ones that end with .aero, .biz, coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro.
What does this mean for your company? It means that premium website addresses that are memorable for your clients that used to lead to a totally different company that thought of generating their website first, may soon be available to you with a new extension instead of the .com and other pre-existing ones. But with that, the Federal Trade Commission wants you to be aware of fraudulent businesses that are soliciting guarantees to those names by faxing you an advertisement. Those faxes may be promising you preferential treatment in the registration process in exchange for a fee.
The FTC advises consumers to protect themselves by avoiding any pre-registration service that guarantees that, since only ICANN has control over the process. They also urge you to think twice before engaging in businesses that sends unsolicited faxes since those are illegal. If you have any questions or would like to stay on top of this news, it’s advisable to go to the ICANN website.
In the meantime, the FTC has urged ICANN to implement a pilot program to take new steps to protect consumers. The Commission stated that they and other government agencies need to navigate the domain name system that is already existing in order to investigate cases of unfair or deceptive practices online and avoid further manipulation by scam artists seeking to avoid detection.
Ready to take the leap and look into obtaining a new domain name for your company anyway? And when you’re ready, you can tell your IT guru, UCANN.
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This article is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be relied on as legal advice for any particular matter.