DOMAIN NAMES - GENERAL

What is a domain name?

Why own a domain name?

Why secure my domain name in the .com Top-Level Domains (TLD) versus other Top-Level Domains?

What are the differences between a generic TLD and an International domain name?

How many domain names are registered worldwide?

What is the .us domain? Can I register there?

What are the .cc, .to, .nu, and .TV domains?

Why secure the ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) of my domain?

Why should my business register a country-specific domain name if I already have a .com domain name?

What characters can be used to form a domain name?

How long can a domain name be?

What is the difference between name investing and "cybersquatting"?

What are the risks of investing in domain names?

What is your Privacy Policy?

DOMAIN NAMES - GENERAL

What is a domain name?

Domain names are what you type into your web browser to take you to a website. A domain name is your address on the Internet. It is made up of four different parts, detailed below.

The domain name is your address on the Internet, and, like a good real estate location, a good domain name has great financial potential.

Why own a domain name?

Most high-quality names have already been registered. If you find one that has not been registered, it soon will be. Good names can be both the cornerstone of a new business as well as a wise investment in the future. Securing domain names protects your ownership over the names of your business and products on the Internet. Securing related domain names for you and your business can make you easier to locate on the Web.

Why secure my domain name in the .com Top-Level Domains (TLD) versus other Top-Level Domains?

The generic Top-Level Domain .com is the Park Avenue of Internet real estate. It is the most recognized "location" for e-commerce in the world. There are numerous other generic TLDs including the popular .net and .org. Though not as well known as .com, ownership of all three of these TLDs for one particular domain provides you protection from someone trying to register your domain name with a different TLD. Besides the various generic TLDs, there are also country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), like .uk., .fr, .de, etc., that can give your presence in the various countries that they represent. Both generic and country-code TLDs provide a domain name with exposure to various specific Internet marketplaces. Currently, however, .com remains the best-recognized address to have worldwide.

What are the differences between a generic TLD and an International domain name?

The .com, .net and .org are called generic domains because they are not affiliated with any country. Global domains are unrestricted--this means anyone from anywhere can register a .com, .net or .org domain name. You can also register as many names as you wish in the generic TLDs, as long as you pay the fees. The TLDs .edu, .gov, and .mil, are affiliated with American educational, government, and military institutions, respectively.

Country-code domains are country specific. Today there are more than 200 countries that accept registrations, and each has very different registration requirements. Certain country-specific domain names are restricted, and applicants must meet strict local presence, tax, or trademark guidelines in order to register. Other country-specific domain names are unrestricted and allow anyone to register in their domain, much like with the generic TLDs. Over 80 countries are unrestricted in their registration requirements.

How many domain names are registered worldwide?

Following is a summary, as of March 12, 2000, of name registrations to date around the world.

Generic TLDs

Source: Domainstats.com

With 16 million domain names registered today, at an estimated average registration fee of $25/year, the market size today is $400 million (measured by cost of name registration). International Data Corporation (IDC), has estimated that by 2003 there will be approximately 150 million worldwide registrations. Assuming that the value of an average name is just $500, then the market will be $75 billion in size by 2003.

What is the .us domain? Can I register there?

The .us domain is the country-specific domain of the United States. Domain names with the .us domain must be geographically specific to the city and state level. For example, if your company were in Biloxi, Mississippi, your name would have to be registered as ______.biloxi.ms.us. Contact the .us registry if you have .us registration questions.

What are the .cc, .to, .nu, and .TV domains?

Though often used to simulate generic TLDs, the .cc (Cocos-Keeling Islands), .to (Tonga), .nu (Niue), and .TV (Tuvalu) domains are island-nations that register domain names to anyone. Web users are drawn to these TLDs because of their clever appearance in a domain name. For example, .nu means now in Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian.

Why secure the ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) of my domain?

First, many of the most common and popular names are still available in the ccTLDs, whereas they have already been registered in the major generic TLDs. Second, ownership of a domain in a ccTLD has a unique ability to increase your market presence in that country. Unlike the United States where .com, .net, and .org have largely marginalized the "brandability" of the ccTLD .us, the ccTLDs of the world’s various countries and territories have a very substantial market-share in each of their various regions. However, there are many more than 200 ccTLDs, so purchasing each TLD will prove expensive. Limit yourself to those that are germane to your marketplace.

Why should my business register a country-specific domain name if I already have a .com domain name?

Just as a .com or a .net domain name can be excellent "real estate" in the global village of cyber-space, a country-code TLD gives you a prime location within a specific country’s cyber-marketplace. With country-specific domain names you can prevent unauthorized use of your trademarks, brands, and licensed names as domain names worldwide. Multinational corporations and Web-based businesses are smart to register their domain names in countries where they plan to offer products and services. It is much, much cheaper to register the relevant ccTLD today than to fight a cybersquatter later to get your name back.

What characters can be used to form a domain name?

The characters that can be used in a domain name are the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet (A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z), the ten Arabic numerals (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0), and the hyphen (-). Domain names are not case sensitive; The Internet understands "a" and "A" as the same letter when it comes to domain names. Also, the one possible piece of punctuation, the hyphen, cannot be the first or last letter in a domain name.

How long can a domain name be?

Long names are very difficult to remember. A domain name with as little as fifteen letters can be quite cumbersome, so choose wisely. You can register domain names of up to 63 characters in length, excluding the 4-character .com, .net, or .org extension. Some countries cannot yet accept 63-character domain names and remain only able to register names that are 26 characters in length.

What is the difference between name investing and "cybersquatting"?

"Cybersquatters" are people who register trademarked names. For example, a certain individual registers waltdisney.fr, and then pushes Walt Disney in California to pay her a significant fee to transfer the name to Walt Disney's possession. Name investors are people who register names which do not have trademarks. For example, a certain individual registered loans.com, a name for which there is no trademark, back in 1995, and recently sold it for $US3 million to Bank of America.
GoldNames is firmly opposed to cybersquatting, does not engage in cybersquatting, and strongly discourages its clients from engaging in cybersquatting.

What are the risks of investing in domain names?

· Domain name investing is subject to risks of technological change and evolving industry standards.

The Internet in general and domain name investing in particular are still in their infant stage.The Internet could simply stop functioning due to overloading or a virus or terrorist attack. The domain name system could undergo some other unforeseeable sea change. For example, currently domain names are only accessible using the Latin alphabet (a-z). Eventually, surfers may be able to use other alphabets (e.g., Arabic, Hebrew), and domain names of transliterated words from other alphabets will shrink in value.Such companies as i-DNS.net, RealNames, and neteka.com offer domain name access in every major alphabet and language in the world. In any of these cases, an investor could fail to achieve reasonable returns.

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· Internet surfers could begin accessing sites primarily through "plain-English" domain names.

The Internet Engineering Task Force is currently developing a proposed standard, the Common Name Resolution Protocol, to allow users to type in simple words instead of complicated URLs to get to their goal. The CNRP standard would unify common names already being used by RealNames , NetWords, America Online KeyWords, MSN Autosearch, Netscape Navigator Smart Browsing, and CompuServe's Go Words. (Representatives from some of those companies are on the IETF standards committee.) If the standard becomes internationally accepted, then the value of the underlying domain names could shrink. The final standard should take about a year to finalize, and then web and software companies would have to decide whether to adopt the protocol.

· Certain domain properties may be expropriated.

When buying names in the country domains, the investor faces a risk that the relevant country's internet administrators will retroactively change the rules as to who can buy the names. For example, a country could rule that a buyer must immediately develop the site and not merely park it. Alternatively, a country could rule that names can only be bought by citizens and corporations located in the country. Unlike real property, internet property is extremely easy to expropriate, requiring only a small change in the country's NIC database.

· Domain properties may be the subject of trademark dispute.

GoldNames does not recommend to investors to purchase or trade in properties that are subject to trademark dispute (e.g., disneyfilms.com). Nonetheless, an investor may accidentally acquire or broker a transaction involving a name likely to invoke a trademark dispute. In addition, even after an investor owns a name, another individual may trademark the name and then try to claim the name from the investor. Merely reserving a domain name isn't enough to safeguard it from trademark dispute

Over 1000 proceedings have been commenced under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy since the policy went into full operation on 3 January 2000. In an effort to assist the community in keeping track of these proceedings, the ICANN web site lists the proceedings arranged by (a) commencement date, (b) proceeding number, and (c) domain name. In addition, the ICANN site now offers a search tool and a statistical report on the status of the proceedings. These may be accessed through ICANN.

· New or changing laws or regulations could greatly restrict the domain investor.

On an ongoing basis, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN", www.icann.org) is working to more closely monitor and arbitrate the registration of names on the Internet. ICANN is primarily concerned with cybersquatting, i.e., investors who deliberately choose domain names that are similar to major trademarks. It is also possible that ICANN will restrict investors from registering names without the intention of immediately developing them.

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