The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) should ensure that its proposed top-level domain application process guards against "front running" by speculators, states Michael Palage in "New gTLDs: Let the Gaming Begin, Part I: TLD Front Running," released today by The Progress & Freedom Foundation. The paper is the first in a series of commentaries identifying unresolved issues surrounding ICANN’s proposed implementation of new top-level domains (TLDs).
In the paper, PFF Adjunct Fellow Palage raises concerns over the actions of certain prospective TLD applicants filing national trademark applications associated with generic TLD strings such as .MUSIC, .MOVIE, .BLOG, etc. This type of "front running" by prospective applicants trying to game the process potentially interferes with other legitimate applications. The failure of ICANN to address this problem "may jeopardize ICANN's core function: maintaining the global interoperability of a unique root," he explains. Specifically, trademark owners who are unable to secure a particular TLD string may seek to have the courts direct the root server's operator to remove the disputed string.
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