Corporate domain name management - eBrand Services

American Advertisers Complain About New gTLD Programme

Three American advertising associations have complained to ICANN about the recently approved plan to allow for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) with a common theme being the damage to brand names the new gTLDs will bring about.

The three groups – the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and the American Association of Advertising Agencies(4A) – have come out strongly against the plan, however it would appear they have left it too late.

ICANN has been consulting with intellectual property groups, people involved in domain names including potential applicants, lawyers and anyone else who is interested for over five years, yet the American advertising groups have seemingly only just realised the significance of the changes.

In June ICANN approved the Applicant Guidebook at its Singapore meeting and will open the first application window on 12 January for three months when it is expected that hundreds of brand names, special interest groups and regions and cities will apply for a TLD.

The letter from the ANA to ICANN outlining their concerns the criticises ICANN for its lack of a bottom-up input process involving the global internet community, insufficient research and guidance from expert authorities, inadequate oversight by the U.S. Department of Commerce and potentially disastrous consequences if the programme is implemented in January 2012, as planned.

The ANA argues that implementation of the ICANN programme is economically unsupportable and is likely to cause irreparable harm and damage to its membership and the Internet business community in general. At the same time, according to the ANA, the programme contravenes the legal rights of brand owners and jeopardises the safety of consumers.

“By introducing confusion into the marketplace and increasing the likelihood of cybersquatting and other malicious conduct, the ICANN top-level domain programme diminishes the power of trademarks to serve as strong, accurate and reliable symbols of source and quality in the marketplace,” says Bob Liodice, President and CEO, ANA.

“Brand confusion, dilution and other abuses also pose risks of cyber predator harms, consumer privacy violations, identity theft and cyber security breaches. The decision to go forward with the programme also violates sound public policy and contravenes ICANN’s Code of Conduct and its undertakings with the United States Department of Commerce.”

But ICANN refuted most of the ANA’s concerns, and for the rest, said these had been addressed.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau also expressed their concerns saying that the programme to assign hundreds of thousands of new domain names would cause incalculable financial damage to brand owners, including the hundreds of media brands in its membership.

Lastly 4A complained about the new gTLD plans saying that “if adopted [new gTLDs] would allow applicants to claim virtually any word, generic or branded as a domain name, resulting in confusion of brand identity and dilution of brand history and value.”

"We are very disappointed in the position taken by ICANN concerning the assignment and sale of new domain names,” said 4A’s President and CEO Nancy Hill. “These changes would cost brand owners billions of dollars, severely, if not irreparably, diluting the value of trusted and respected brand names, as well as abrogate the good work 4A’s members have done on behalf of their clients.”

“All marketers share the goal of a stable global marketplace, served by an Internet system that consumers can rely on to accurately reflect the quality and history of a product or service. ICANN’s actions would remove that trust and place consumers at a significant disadvantage in making marketplace choices and decisions.”

In other ICANN news, the CEO and President Rod Beckstrom announced this week he would not be seeking a second term and will leave the organisation at the end of his current term in July 2012.
However it is widely held within domain name circles that Beckstrom was advised he would not be appointed for a second term and announced he would not seek reappointment.