Number: 398

August 15, 1997

Patrice Washington
Office of Public Affairs
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration
Room 4898
14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20230

Re: Request for Comments on the Registration
and Administration of Internet Domain Names

Dear Ms. Washington:

This letter is in response to the Department of Commerce's Request for Comments on the Registration and Administration of Internet Domain Names, which appeared in the July 2, 1997 edition of the Federal Register.

A. Appropriate Principles

The domain name registration system is not best left to the private sector. The assignment of a domain name carries no inherently valuable commercial content any more so than does the assignment of a telephone number, a post office box, or a postal address. Private sector competition in the domain name registration "business" would only serve to further confuse the already complicated domain name system. Administration of the domain name registration system by an international regulatory body would be more efficient, fairer and make more sense.

B. General/Organizational Framework Issues

1. The principle disadvantage of the current domain name registration system is that it, unlike the trademark registration system, does not permit two entities in non-competing businesses to use the same name, so long as there is no likelihood of confusion. Thus, for example, a company which legitimately uses the name "ABC" to sell furniture, could not register the domain name "ABC.com" if it had already been registered by ABC News.

3. Because of the international nature of the Internet, domain name registration systems should be administered by an international organization, in a manner similar to the operation of the ISO. The makeup of such an international entity should include representatives from both the public and private sectors in various countries in which the Internet is being used.

4. Currently, the disputes over domain names are caused by the fact that many Internet users expect to find a particular company's site simply by entering that company's name with the ".com" top level domain name extension. However, once an Internet site is known to a user, that user no longer has a need to remember the domain name, because the user can simply "bookmark" the site in his or her web browser. In addition, as the Internet comes into wider use, it will become increasingly difficult for companies to use domain names that are easily recognizable or memorable. Therefore, Internet search engines and indices will become more important and more prevalent in the way users of the Internet locate sites of interest. Therefore, I would suggest that a more sensible way of allocating domain names would be to entirely eliminate the domain name system, and replace it with the numerical system used for IP addresses. In fact, the current use of host domain names is simply a surrogate for the IP numbers, to which the domain names map. By using the essentially random IP numbers, instead of domain names, many of the disputes over domain name registrations would disappear. In this manner, domain names would be no more distinctive then telephone numbers.

8. The transition to the new "numbers only" system should be accomplished in a phased but rapid manner. The Internet is always fast-changing, and the change in the domain name system, though radical, would quickly be absorbed and adopted by users. Thus, the new "numbers only" system could probably be transitioned into use over a period of only a few months.

C. Creation of New gTLDs

11. New gTLDs should not be created. If new gTLDs are created (such as .inc, .ltd, .firm, .store, or any of the other suggested gTLDs), companies are likely to respond by simply registering the same second level domain name across several top level domain names (i.e., ABC.com, ABC,inc, ABC,firm, etc.) Thus, creation of gTLDs as alternatives to ".com" would only cause companies to register their company's name across several top level domain names.

E. Trademark Issues

24. Conflicts over trademarks in the domain name context can best be prevented by simply eliminating the source of the conflicts by using a "numbers only" domain name system.

Very truly yours,

David Leit

cc: Mike Heltzer
INTA Government Relations Program Coordinator
International Trademark Association
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036-6710