Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse Says ICANN’s gTLD Launch Will Cost Businesses $746 Million
By Anna Johnson on April 19th, 2010The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) has released a report indicating that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ (ICANN) anticipated launch of 400 generic top-level domains (gTLDs) could cost brand owners worldwide over $746 million.
Based on its analysis of the expected number of global top level domains (gTLDs) (such as .com, .net and .org) to be released during the first round of the new gTLD launches, CADNA estimates that individual brand owners could face costs of $500,000 each in order to defend their brands and trademarks.
This is based on CADNA’s ‘conservative’ estimate that the average brand owner will defensively register 3 domain names per gTLD, that the average price of domain name registrations in sunrise periods of new gTLD launches will be $500, and that brands will not necessarily participate equally in each gTLD launch.
These estimates exclude the costs of a business securing its own branded TLD, nor do they include the costs of future domain renewals, new domain name monitoring, or enforcement costs.
Releasing the report, CADNA president Josh Bourne said:
“Most businesses will not even use all the domain names they pay to register. But they feel pressured to buy them anyway in order to prevent an unaffiliated party from purchasing domain names containing their trademarks and using them to deceive and exploit their customers.”
In addition, Josh Bourne expected the creation of the new gTLDs to result in more rampant cybersquatting.
Ironically, CADNA may have an unlikely ally in its opposition to the new gTLDs: the domain investment (domaining) community. Many domainers i.e. those seeking to maximize the value of their existing domain names are wary of an influx of more gTLDs, which may reduce the value of their domain name holdings.
