Lawyer: Domain Name Rule Changes Will Cost Governments

The rule changes set forth earlier this week by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that will allow new generic top-level domain (gTLD) names could end up costing governments quite a bit of money, whether they apply to own one of the extensions or not.

Instead of the traditional .gov, .org or .com gTLDs currently in use, starting on Jan. 12, 2012, various city and state names and almost any word can be applied for and purchased. That cost is an estimated $185,000 fee, plus a $25,000 annual price-tag to operate the gTLD. But the legal fees associated with protecting a government entity’s name may ultimately be pricier, according to Scott Bain, chief litigation counsel of the Software & Information Industry Association, a trade association representing the software and digital content industries. Governments without the funds to apply for their own gTLD face the possibility of someone else buying the extension and being forced to tangle with that purchaser in court in order to block it, Bain said. Although the high cost and yearly fee theoretically would curtail most common cyber-squatters from actually buying a gTLD and fully exploiting it, Bain maintained the real worry is the thousands of domains that could spawn from each new extension.