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While ICANN, its registrars and registries collect fees, cyber criminals fleece the public--

Security must include domain name protection, say experts - computerweekly.com: "... the issue of domain names is typically overlooked when designing an online security strategy, said Rob Cotton, chief executive at information assurance firm NCC Group. “Making sure you’ve got the right internet domains is often dismissed by executives as simply a job for the marketing department, but we’ve got an incident here that’s affected share price – and that’s going to send tremors right up to board level,” he said. How cyber criminals use fake sites - Cotton said vigilance in this regard is becoming increasingly important as cyber criminals now have more than 1,000 new generic top-level domains to exploit, such as .shop and .london. In October 2014, security researchers uncovered a cyber espionage campaign against military, diplomatic and defence industry targets in the US, Europe and Pakistan, that included fake websites. Although the campaign mainly used phishing emails, the attackers also compromised legitimate sites in Poland to redirect targeted visitors to a fake military contractor website. The fake site was almost identical to the compromised legitimate website, designed to infect victims’ computers with information-stealing malware." (read more at link above)

see also: expVC: Cybercrime, Rogue Registrars: Is ICANN Unfit For Internet Governance?
and
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/cooper-to-chehade-et-al-09dec14-en.pdf

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22 September 2014

Negative Trends for Domain Names, Domain Name Industry

Google Trends - Web Search interest: tld, Top-level domain, domain name, icann - Worldwide, 2004 - present: TLD, Top-Level Domain, Domain Name, ICANN

Registrar Stats reported a total net loss of 3,511 registered domain names in their Total TLD Domain Counts report for September 20, 2014. Of the 10 largest gTLDs (generic Top-Level Domains), all showed a net loss of registered domain names, except for .COM, .XYZ, .ASIA, and .BERLIN. What will happen next year when it comes time for renewals of new gTLD domain names (which are generally priced higher than .COM domain names)?

Maybe ICANN is 10 years too late in launching 1000+ new TLD domain name extensions--maybe, as Chris Dixon has said, the audience and all the action is going mobile--moving towards native mobile applications, bypassing the web altogether. Whatever it is, the numbers are not impressive in most of the new gTLDs, and in recent months there's been a spate of stories negative on domain names (new gTLDs) and the domain name industry (registrars/registries)--here's a sampling:

GoDaddy’s proposed IPO--Go time or past time?

Critical Look at New gTLD Registries' Tactics

Hey domain registrars, get your sh*t together!

Why most brands may never sign the ICANN contract

Update on the Status of Already-Launched gTLDs: Is Anyone Out There?

Rightside – Short Idea – Trending on towards the Wrong-side

New TLDs: is it an awareness, acceptance or demand issue?

ICANN Insiders On New gTLDs: Mistakes, Fiascos, Horrible Implementation

Verisign Ranked #1 By Z-Score Which Predicts Companies Heading Into Serious Financial Distress

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11 September 2014

ICANN Economic Study RFP, Global Domain Name System Market

Interesting RFP--this should have been done on a regular basis beginning years ago (and certainly before new gTLDs were ever authorized); hopefully the contractor chosen will be unbiased and competent--if you know of any competent, qualified candidate, please pass this along:

Request for Proposal for Economic Study - ICANN: ICANN Announcement September 8, 2014:

"The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") is seeking one or more provider(s) to conduct an economic study examining pricing trends and other competition indicators in the global domain name system (DNS) market. The selected provider(s) will design and execute an initial study to create a meaningful baseline of data on multiple factors of competition and will perform a follow-on study one year later, to generate and analyze a set of comparison data. ICANN is seeking one or more qualified providers to manage this complex exercise in a timely and efficient manner.

"ICANN anticipates a contract to be signed and work to begin with the selected provider(s) no later than November 2014.

"As part of ICANN's Affirmation of Commitments ("Affirmation"), ICANN has pledged to promote competition, consumer trust, and consumer choice. The Affirmation outlines ICANN's responsibilities to the global community of Internet users, who are all served by the DNS. The Affirmation focuses on three primary areas of accountability: (a) ensuring accountability, transparency and the interests of global Internet users; (b) preserving security, stability and resiliency of the DNS; and (c) promoting competition, consumer trust and consumer choice. Each of the focus areas includes regular reviews by the community to gauge ICANN's performance.

"The economic study will capture some of the metrics proposed by ICANN's community to evaluate the impact of the New gTLD Program on competition, consumer choice and consumer trust. A multi-stakeholder review team, to be formed, will include the findings as it examines other measures of competition, such as survey findings on end users' perceived choice in the DNS, as well as the quantities of new gTLD operators, service providers, registrars, domain name registrations, and other metrics. The review may also provide recommendations to ICANN on additional initiatives that should be undertaken.

"As the DNS serves a large ecosystem of registries, registry service operators, registrars and resellers, and domain name registrants, the study must be able to capture inputs in a representative manner from across the multitude of players relevant to marketplace practices.

"For additional information and instructions for submitting responses please click here [ZIP, 799 KB].

"Proposals should be submitted to economicstudy-rfp@icann.org by 23:59 UTC on 29 September 2014." (source: ICANN, emphasis added)

Questions:

What data, specifically, is being collected? What methodologies of data collection and analysis are being used? What data, specifically, is not being collected, or not able to be "captured" that might be relevant?
Who is interpreting the data? The data may be subject to multiple interpretations. Therefore, will ICANN disclose the raw data, the methodologies used for collection and analysis, and alternative interpretations?
How is ICANN (or anyone else) measuring (what are the "metrics") "competition, consumer choice and consumer trust"? These are loaded terms with multiple meanings depending on the vested interests at stake.

Recommendation to ICANN: If ICANN wants an unbiased, competent, valid study, it should automatically disqualify anyone from, or referred by, any member of the so-called Domain Name Association--this is the industry group representing, principally, some of the new gTLD registry operators and others in alliance with their self-seeking goals, which may be detrimental to the interests of the domain name industry as a whole or the wider public interest--the conflict of interest is obvious.

Report submitted by: contributing editor, John Poole, Domain Mondo

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01 September 2014

4th International Domain Name Conference, Paris, November 2014

Attention Domain Name Portfolio managers, legal/IP managers, heads of IT, web marketing managers, lawyers, IP consultants, advertising agencies, digital services companies--

4th International Domain Name Conference - Paris - 19-20 November 2014: The conference is a "private event organized by SafeBrands/Mailclub. Participation is free, but reserved for guests of SafeBrands/Mailclub." You can find further information and request an invitation at the link above.

Speakers list
AGENDA:
Wednesday 19 November – Morning
New governance, new extensions, new naming
8.30 am: Welcome breakfast
9.00am: Welcome address
9.15am: Debates on the following themes:

Internet governance: evolution and impact for domain-name holders
Naming in 2020
Summary of the new extensions
Case study : the .vin/.wine extension
What future for .com?
The next rounds of new extensions

12.30pm: lunch
Wednesday 19 November – Afternoon

Strategies for protecting brands and domain names

2.15pm: Naming strategy, naming charter
What is a naming charter, its purpose, how to put one together
Example of a strategy and sharing experiences
gTLDs – ccTLDs – New extensions: 3 types of extensions for 3 uses
TMCH and DPML: proof of use, choosing the marks to protect, etc.
The special case of CorpTLDs
Social network ‘usernames’
4.30pm: Domain name security
Types of attacks
How to protect yourself

Thursday 20 November – Morning
Domain names and value creation
8.30 am: Welcome breakfast
9.00am: Marketing opportunities from the new extensions
Referencing and NewGTLDs
The NewGTLDs: implications for the domain name secondary market
Is domaining dead?
11.00am: Accounting valuation of a portfolio of domain names
12.30pm : Lunch
Thursday 20 November – Afternoon
Monitoring, recovery, ending attacks: how to optimize and reduce your expenses?
2.30–5.00pm: Monitoring, analysing, reacting
Setting up monitoring and analysing the results
Recovery strategies, their effectiveness and cost – an overview of claims, UDRP, URS
Worldwide on-line monitoring of potential infringements of your trademarks:
Domain names
Social networks
Logos
Adwords campaigns

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30 July 2014

Good Advice ICANN Ignored, INTA Green Paper Response, new gTLDs

The tragedy of the huge mistake ICANN made with flooding the DNS with 1000+ new gTLDs, can truly be put into perspective when one takes the time to review INTA's response (pdf) to the US government's green paper (pdf) -- its statements are as relevant in 2014 as when originally made in 1998 -- excerpts below (emphasis added):

"... INTA applauds the efforts of the [US government] Administration to seek comment from the public concerning the future of the Internet - the latest mode of global communication....INTA supports efforts by the U.S. Government to privatize the Internet and promote international participation in the domain name system.... INTA believes that the most important issues relating to administration of the DNS, including the policy for addition of generic top level domain names (gTLDs) and the guaranteed operation of an authoritative root server system are not technical. Decisions on these functions will have a critical impact on businesses and consumers using the Internet. They will have significant consequences for the stability and interconnectivity of the Internet and particularly for its utility as an effective medium for electronic commerce. In this respect, the Administration does not adequately recognize or acknowledge the damaging effects of loss of business and consumer confidence in the Internet as a result of changes which are likely to increase the potential for confusion and conflict over domain names... INTA favors the alternative single, shared registry model... with the registry operating on a cost-recovery basis and with competition between registrars. Under this model, the new corporation [ICANN] would be empowered to manage the gTLD name-space as a public resource, would be able to take its decisions in the wider public interest and would not be involved in the dubious practice of granting proprietary monopolies to commercial enterprises to control individual gTLDs... The Administration asserts that attempts to impose central order "risk stifling a medium like the Internet that is decentralized by nature and thrives on freedom and innovation". What the Administration appears to be reluctant to accept is that the inevitable consequence of unconstrained "freedom" (as sought by the Internet technical community) is chaos, confusion and anarchy where only the street-wise (in this case hackers and others with sufficient technical skills) can survive. Already, the exploitation of this "freedom" by those without principles or any sense of community responsibility has given rise to the problems of proliferation of illegal content (e.g. child pornography), security breaches (e.g.hacking and spoofing incidents like Kashpureff's hijack of the root-server), spam and copyright infringements, all of which undermine established real-world standards… The pressure to add new gTLDs has to date come predominantly from members of the Internet technical community. While INTA has made considerable efforts to bring "real-world" and commercial user views into the debate through its participation in IAHC and POC, overall it is clear that the concerns of ordinary businesses and consumers have not been given weight commensurate with the potential impact the addition of new gTLDs might have on their interests. The unconstrained proliferation of gTLDs will act to undermine the existing trademark system (we have already heard calls from members of the Internet technical community for domain names to be above trademark law, but to be "brands" at the same time.) In a San Francisco Chronicle article of January 31, 1998 entitled "Domain Name Plan May Result in Net Chaos"… No one benefits from consumer confusion, except, perhaps, those who seek to engender it….”

What really struck me in reading INTA's 1998 paper is how often it makes the same points I made recently. Oh well, maybe someday the global internet community will have a responsible and representative governing body over the internet DNS, guided by the wider public interest and governing the DNS as a public resource.

--report submitted by contributing editor, John Poole, Domain Mondo

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27 July 2014

Verisign Earnings Call, Most Important Takeaway, gTLD winners and losers

The most important takeaway from the Verisign earnings call (registry for .COM and .NET) is in bold below -- Verisign +11.6% on healthy guidance, buyback expansion - VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) | Seeking Alpha: "... The company has $1.5B in cash to finance buybacks with. Q2 domain name net adds totaled 420K, towards the low end of a 300K-800K guidance range. But Verisign expects net adds to grow to 600K-1.1M in Q3. Total active .com/.net domain names amounted to 128.9M at the end of Q2, +3.7% Y/Y. However, processed domain names slipped by 200K Y/Y to 8.5M, and the company discloses renewal rate fell 60 bps [basis points] in Q1 to 72.6% ..."

So there you have it: Q2 2014 Verisign had total domain name net adds of 420,000 but expects total domain name net adds to grow to 600,000 to 1,100,000 in Q3 2014. No explanation was given as to how this will happen, but it will be interesting to watch and see if Verisign is right.

Tracking daily net adds recently for all gTLDs on Registrar Stats has indicated the domain extensions consistently driving net new growth in gTLD domain name registrations are .COM and .XYZ (a new gTLD). All other gTLDs are either: (1) in the red (negative in net adds/losing registrations) which is where most of the legacy gTLDS (except .COM) are; (2) at zero or near -0- net new registrations which is where most of the new gTLDs are since they do not have any renewals or drops until next year and are not getting many new registrations; or (3) have some growth although mostly unimpressive (the sole standout in this subcategory being .CLUB with total registrations of 88,529 as of July 25).

Here are the top 3 gainers and losers for July 25, 2014, of all gTLDs:
Extension Total Domains Net Add or Loss
.COM 113,843,335 +24,209
.XYZ 380,355 +7,527
.TOKYO* 11,981 +497 *new gTLD launch week
.INFO 5,665,636 -775
.MOBI 924,719 -772
.BIZ 2,641,321 -386

Total net adds for all the gTLDs (legacy including .COM + all new gTLDs) were almost 34,000 for July 25th. If you subtract the .COM net adds, then all the other gTLDs (new and old) only garnered about 10,000 net new adds, most of which went to .XYZ. How many of those .XYZ adds were for free domain names, is unknown. And of course, not every day recently shows such adds for either .XYZ or .COM (which also has a few net loss days recently).

So, yes ICANN decided to increase the number of gTLD domain name extensions from 22 to over 1000, but increasing supply does not increase demand. There will be many losers (many new gTLDs are already failing in registration growth) and just a few winners. Currently the total gTLD pie of net new domain name registrations is growing, albeit slowly if you subtract the net new adds in the .COM and .XYZ extensions from the totals.

Final notes: as a Verisign officer said during the call (paraphrasing): .NET is like a new gTLD whereas .COM is in a category by itself. Daniel Negari (.XYZ) took a different path from most other new gTLD applicants--his extension .XYZ is literally a "generic" extension--.XYZ stands for nothing other than the last 3 letters in the English/Latin Script/Roman Script alphabet - "the most widely adopted writing system in the world commonly used by about 70% of world's population" according to Wikipedia. We will know a year from now whether his aggressive marketing has paid off when we have figures from renewals and drops. In the meantime, how is Verisign going to increase net new adds in their gTLDs in the 3Q 2014, to 600,000 to 1.1 million (from only 420,000 in 2Q 2014)? And finally, while almost everyone is focused on the new gTLDs, the real growth story for the last few years has been in ccTLDs (Country Code Top-Level Domains):

Global growth is driven by ccTLDs: "In the last seven years ccTLDs have driven the growth of the global market, out-growing gTLDs every year except 2010 when a near 10 million drop in .cn domains (due to policy changes) had a massive impact on the total. In 2012 ccTLDs grew nearly three times as fast as gTLDs (+18.3% vs +6.4%)."

--report submitted by contributing editor, John Poole, Domain Mondo

Update October 23, 2014: Dot COM Still King! Verisign 3Q 2014, Highest Q3 on Record!

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26 June 2014

ICANN 50 Closes, France Calls ICANN "unfit for Internet Governance"

ICANN 50 closed Thursday with the largest attendance ever, but on a sour note caused by a growing dispute over its controversial new gTLD domain names program:

France says U.S.-based ICANN is unfit for Internet governance: London (AFP) – France strongly attacked the US-based body that assigns internet addresses on Wednesday, saying it was not a fit venue for internet governance and that alternatives should be sought. The eurozone’s second-largest economy has been at war with the body, which assigns domain names like ‘.com’ and runs crucial internet infrastructure, over the ‘.wine’ and ‘.vin’ suffixes being rolled out as part of an unprecedented expansion of domains. On Wednesday France failed in a bid to freeze the assigning of the domains, which it believes should be restricted to protect trade agreements on region-specific products like champagne. “ICANN’s procedures highlight its inability to take into account the legitimate concerns of states,” the French delegation to ICANN’s 50th meeting, taking place in London, said in a statement. “Today ICANN is not the appropriate forum to discuss Internet governance.” France will initiate discussions with European countries and other stakeholders on the future of internet governance, the statement said....

At the conclusion of the public meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors on Thursday, someone in the room noted there would not be wine at the Cocktail Party immediately following, but perhaps vinegar.

The next meeting of ICANN, ICANN51, is scheduled for Los Angeles, 12-16 October 2014, followed thereafter by ICANN52, 8-12 February 2015, in Marrakesh, Morocco.

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24 June 2014

Google LIVE Presentation Wednesday on New gTLD Domain Names

While ICANN 50, now ongoing in London, appears to be drowning in dysfunction -- the real action this week is across the pond, specifically in San Francisco and Mountain View:

Google presentation on New gTLDs -- Who Cares About New Domain Names? --streamed LIVE* from Google I/O in San Francisco: Wednesday, June 25 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM (Pacific Time US): "The first new generic top-level domains are coming online, from .photography to .みんな. Who cares, you say? We do. We’ll tell you how the explosion of new domain names means cool things for the future of the web. But it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. New domain names also mean new challenges for all of us. In fact, they’re probably already breaking your products. Join us to find out what’s happening, get a glimpse at what’s coming, and learn what we all need to do now to prepare."

Speakers:
Ben Fried - Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Google
Corey Goldfeder - Google engineer on the Domain Registry team in NYC
Kripa Krishnan - Technical Program Director at Google and works on the new gTLDs launch and acceptance program

*If you can't watch live, you can see YouTube recordings of all Google I/O sessions after the conference.

Meanwhile, Google as Domain Registrar has launched in beta: Google Domains. Why Google decided to get into the Domain Registrar business was explained in a Google+ post:

"Starting to test Google Domains It's 2014 " . . . 55% of small businesses still don't have [a website]. So as we explore ways to help small businesses succeed online (through tools like Google My Business, we thought it made sense to look more closely at the starting point of every business’s online presence - a website. And that starts with a domain name. We’re beginning to invite a small number of people to kick the tires on Google Domains, a domain registration service we’re in the process of building. Businesses will be able to search, find, purchase and transfer the best domain for their business - whether it’s .com, .biz, .org, or any of the wide range of new domains that are being released to the Web...We also want to make sure our customer support and infrastructure works flawlessly, and that we have the right additional services (like mobile website creation tools and hosting services from a range of providers, as well as domain management support)... our goal is to make Google Domains more widely available soon ..." (emphasis added)

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23 June 2014

ICANN vs France, Spain, Portugal, and the EU over .wine and .vin

As reported here yesterday, a storm is brewing in Europe over ICANN's intentions to delegate new .gTLDs .vin and .wine. ICANN Board Chairman Stephen Crocker apparently spent a busy day Saturday, June 21, 2014, signing what appear to be "form letters" to various governmental officials who have "sounded off," pro and con, on the .wine and .vin issues, including the following (all bearing the date June 21, 2014):

Letter from Stephen Crocker to Lawrence Strickling (USA)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Keith Besgrove (Australia)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Axelle Lemair (France)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Victor Calvo-Sotelo Ibanez-Martin (Spain)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Nuno Crato (Portugal)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Neelie Kroes (EU)
Letter from Stephen Crocker to Bruce Parkes (New Zealand)

Dr. Crock may think he has "blown off" Ms. Lemair (France) et al, but sources in London and Paris say the Crocker has no idea who or what he is dealing with--just read what the staid London financial newspaper, the Financial Times, is reporting:

France lashes out at internet naming body ICANN - FT.com: " . . . France has linked the issue [new gTLDs .wine and .vin] to the broader question of how ICANN is structured and governed. “The problem is it is totally opaque, there is no transparency at all in the process,” Axelle Lemaire, minister for digital affairs, told the Financial Times... Ms Lemaire also wrote this month to the ICANN board saying the domain name process threatened to “undermine confidence in your organisation”. The US agreed this year to give up its ultimate control of ICANN exercised through the commerce department, but Ms Lemaire made clear France wants to go further, seeking to rally support for a global conference on its overhaul. Paris wants it set up under international law with a redefined mission and overseen by a “general assembly” of stakeholders that would include governmental representation on a “one country, one vote” basis, Ms Lemaire said. In her letter to the ICANN board she wrote: “The lack of adequate redress mechanisms and, above all, the lack of accountability demonstrate the need for significant reform of ICANN even before the current debate on the global internet governance system comes to a conclusion.”..."

I have a feeling Ms. Lemaire et al are just getting started. Vive la France!

--report submitted by contributing editor, John Poole, Domain Mondo

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22 June 2014

France, Portugal and Spain warn ICANN re: new gTLDs .WINE and .VIN

"the failure of ICANN to take due account of the wider public interest"*

"the lack of adequate redress mechanisms and, above all, the lack of accountability demonstrate the need for signficant reform of ICANN even before the current debate on the global Internet governance system comes to a conclusion."*

There is a storm brewing on the continent of Europe over ICANN's stated intention to delegate new gTLDs .WINE and .VIN -- *excerpt from letter of Axelle Lemaire, Secrétaire d'Etat au Numérique (French Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs) to Members of the ICANN Board of Directors --

For the full letter, see France's letter to ICANN:
https://www.icann.org/resources/correspondence/lemaire-to-icann-board-2014-06-18-en

But France is not alone -- see also --

Spain's letter to ICANN:
https://www.icann.org/resources/correspondence/ibanez-martin-to-chehade-2014-06-17-en.

and

Portugal's letter to ICANN:
https://www.icann.org/resources/correspondence/crato-to-icann-board-2014-06-18-en

Uncle Sugar isn't going to cover for a dysfunctional ICANN anymore, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

And of course, Esther Dyson warned everyone about all of this in 2011, but no one listened.

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12 May 2014

Replace ICANN, Prohibit Trafficking in Domain Names, says Attorney

"... [The new] gTLDs are a mess—a legal quagmire for legitimate businesses. . . . the domain name itself, remains subject to all manner of abuse by infringers ... Of course, ICANN did provide the trademark clearinghouse for gTLDs. Admirable if inadequate." (emphasis and link added, source: Nicholas Wells, infra)

So says one enterprising trademark attorney in his article posted at: Replacing ICANN | Nicholas Wells. He proposes an INTA-managed domain system with terms such as the following:

"A. After requesting registration, each domain is subject to a 30-day opposition period during which 3rd parties can object based on pre-existing rights.... D. Domains that are not used within a given period and are not associated with the owner’s registered trademark or a version thereof (so as to provide for typos etc.) would be considered abandoned and would be shut down and returned to public availability.... F. Trafficking in domain names could be prohibited except under specific circumstances, such as for domains transferred as part of a transfer of related trademark rights..." (Emphasis added; read more at the Nicholas Wells link above)

In his article, Attorney Wells notes that INTA, the International Trademark Association, is holding its Annual Meeting in Hong Kong this week. Stay tuned.

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05 February 2014

Cybercriminals, ICANN, new gTLDs, business victims

And as ICANN was warned, repeatedly, the fallout from ICANN's irresponsible, unneeded, and misguided new gTLDs program has begun --

British businesses fall victim to 'cybersquatters' amid domain name rollout - Telegraph: " . . . Over the next year, more than 1,000 new top level domains (TLDs) will come online, taking the number well beyond the 22 that are used today, such as .com, .net and .org. This has been hailed as one of the biggest changes to the Internet since its inception. However, new research reveals that some of the UK’s biggest companies are failing to protect their intellectual property, with many domain names relating to British brands already being bought up by third parties. . . ." (read more at link above)

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03 February 2014

Dot Coms dominate over new gTLDs and all the others

How fast are NON .com #domains growing in popularity? pic.twitter.com/1akQyCsIaX
— Justin W Hall (@justinwhall) January 23, 2014

and if you looked at actual web traffic? Dot Com has even more dominance.

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28 January 2014

How one company made big money on the new gTLDs

Tucows Reports Financial Results for the Third Quarter of 2013 - Yahoo Finance: "Net income for the third quarter of 2013 was $2.6 million, or $0.06 per share, compared with $1.6 million, or $0.04 per share, for the third quarter of 2012. Net income for the third quarter of 2013 included the benefit of the previously announced confidential arrangements related to the Company's withdrawal of its applications under the ICANN New gTLD Program for .media and .marketing."
There was more than one way to profit from new gTLDs if you had the $185,000+ required to play!

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26 January 2014

Oncoming Tide of Generic Top-Level Domain Name Disputes

New gTLDs and the coming nightmare: money quote below (full article embedded further below)

Handling the Oncoming Tide of Generic Top-Level Domain Name Disputes | JAMS, The Resolution Experts - JDSupra: "Even with these new mechanisms and procedures (for trademark protection), the gTLDs could be a trademark nightmare for some brands."

Domain Mondo wrote about this issue: Let's Get One Thing Straight, ICANN Doesn't Care About Your Trademarks

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