New domains cause wrangles

April 2005

Two more top-level domain names - .travel and .jobs - have been approved by the oversight body for the internet's addressing system, but industry figures warned that many firms will find little business value in the new names, though they may have to register them defensively.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the .travel and .jobs suffixes earlier this month, and has designated Tralliance and Employ Media as their respective registrars.

Both domains are expected to go live late this year. But two recent cases suggest that the introduction of more domain suffixes could create problems for some firms.

One of the cases is the ongoing dispute between Apple and the founder of a small internet firm, CyberBritain, over the itunes.co.uk domain name. Benjamin Cohen bought the domain two months before Apple introduced iTunes. However, registry Nominet awarded the domain to Apple after ruling that Cohen was deliberately trying to exploit Apple's brand. Reportedly, Cohen now intends to take the case to the High Court.

In a separate incident last week, George Hollingbery, the Conservative candidate for Winchester, registered a domain containing the name of his Liberal Democrat rival in an attempt to direct users to another web site. LibDem Mark Oaten uses the .com domain, while Hollingbery registered under .co.uk.