There are currently about 21 top-level Internet domains in use worldwide. Most online retailers use .com, but there are also general domains such as .net and .biz and geographical addresses such as .uk for the United Kingdom and .cn for China.
ICANN, which oversees the Internet’s address structure, is moving toward enabling companies and organizations to create their own top-level domains. There is considerable interest from cities in creating domains such as .Paris and .NYC, and among communities of interest in domains like .sport and .eco, says Paul Levins, executive officer and vice president of corporate affairs at ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Are retailers clamoring to create their own domains, such as .Amazon and .Walmart? So far there has been little interest, Levins says.
Perhaps it’s the price tag—$185,000 for a new top-level domain. Levins says that ICANN, a nonprofit organization, set to the price at a level designed to ensure that domains are only purchased by organizations capable of managing them. “We want people who have proven technology skills and business acumen,” he says.
Levins says companies have expressed concern about their brand names being abused, such as by an unrelated organization purchasing the domain .Amazon. But Levins says trademarked names will be protected, and that most of the trademark issues that could arise already have come up in regards to secondary domains, such as Amazon.net or Amazon.cn. Domain operators generally respond to complaints of brand hijacking from trademark holders, although there is widespread abuse involving variants of familiar brand names, such as so-called cybersquatters creating web sites at domains such as www.walmartsale.com or www.contacttarget.com, then finding new variants as those are shut down.
http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=30643