Legal News

Big changes in domain names system

06-10-2008

In Paris, the board of the domain organization ICANN has unanimously adopted the liberalization of domain name extensions. In 2009, anyone with enough money can register new top-level domains. This means that the domain name system, one of the essential pillars of the Internet, will change dramatically.

Instead of a domain name carrying a standard extension such as .nl or .com, anyone may create, register and commercially exploit a multitude of extensions within the near future. In the past few years, various generic top-level domains (gTLDs) such as .mobi, .eu and .asia have been added. As of spring 2009, anyone may register a new top-level domain string, e.g.: .hotel, .amsterdam or .vandoorne. Registration of a new gTLD is not cheap: basic rates start at EUR 60,000. Besides the new gTLDs, ICANN will also make available non-Latin scripts. Chinese, Cyrillic (Russian), Devanagari (Hindi), Arabic and Japanese characters will be added soon.

Things have to be worked out still in administrative and legal terms; ICANN is busy detailing procedures in order to properly monitor the anticipated demand for the new gTLDs.

For more information, please contact Karianne Thomas, Intellectual Property Practice, T: +31 (0)20 6789 380, E: thomas@van-doorne.com

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