Donuts’ Grab for Domains Raises Fears of Cybersquatting

As the Internet adds valuable new domain names that are luring the likes of Google and Amazon, a little-known company called Donuts Inc. is making a grab that opponents say could fuel cybersquatting, the practice of stealing website identities.

Donuts, backed by more than $100 million in venture capital, is spending $56 million to bid for 307 of the 1,400 new so-called generic top-level domain names, or TLDs, that will shape how the Web will soon evolve. Instead of .com, the new names include suffixes such as .book, .app and .law. A lawyer who represents TLD holders is seeking to thwart Donuts’ efforts and is asking the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which authorizes domain name suffixes and is known as ICANN, to investigate Donuts’ links to Demand Media Inc. (DMD) That company’s clients have used domain names to masquerade as other businesses, the lawyer contends. The chief executive officer of Donuts came from Demand Media, and Donuts has an arrangement to sell Demand Media 107 of its TLDs if it chooses to release them.