Jim Dixon wrote:
[restoring deleted text:]
::
::: Corporate entities should be *required* to register in the flat
dot-com
::: namespace, IMHO, and not be *allowed* names in any other namespace.
> First I'll remind you that there is a world outside of the United
> States. Then I'll ask: are you at all serious? You expect to ban
> UK companies from registering in .co.uk?
Last I checked, dot-com was never a US-specific domain. I don't see
anything US-centric in my posting, other than the reference to the US
PTO.
Well, your proposal was that corporate entities be required to
register in .COM and banned from any other name space, which by
any normal reading bans them from .co.uk, .de, .fr, and several
other name spaces.
As for my being serious--no, a ban would be silly. But it *is* food
for thought when contemplating the trend toward globalism over the
past ten years. When starting a new corporate entity, should you come
up with a name which is unique only to your own state or country? Or
should you do a global name search to define a new one and gain global
trademark protection for it?
Names in .CO.UK used to be free, but the registry was run by a
committee which delegated names slowly and often only after protracted
disputes. When Nominet began its very efficient management of the UK
registry we noticed an immediate, large jump in the number of customers
registering there and a corresponding large drop in the number
registering in .COM, despite the fact that Nominet was then charging
considerably more than the InterNIC for a name.
That is, when given the opportunity, people and companies vote for
local name spaces and therefore against a single, global, flat name
space.
If the dot-com registry were operated efficiently and backed by a
trademark authority that had respect throughout the world, then it would
be less costly to set up and protect a new corporate name.
In most countries there are dozens of trademark categories. Having
the rights to a name in one category does not give you exclusive
rights in all. You are suggesting that the world in effect collapse
thousands of name spaces into one, and one that is already
more than overpopulated. Some time ago I looked up
allTheGoodNamesAreGone.com -- sure enough, it was gone.