Association of Canadian Advertisers issues statement on Internet domain name changes
By Adnews Staff
The Toronto-based Association of Canadian Advertisers has issued a statement urging that Internet domain name management organization ICANN abandon its plans to change the top-level domain name system. The proposed changes would allow applicants to register domain names ending in any suffix, rather than the 22 established suffixes such as .com, .org and .net. Under terms of the new program, scheduled to go into effect in January, applicants would be charged an initial cost of $185,000 plus annual fees. In a letter to ICANN, association policy and research vice-president Bob Reaume said: "This program has very serious financial and legal implications for brand owners in Canada. We are concerned that, if carried through, this program will cause harm and damage to marketers by diminishing the power of trademarks, contravening the legal rights of brand owners, introducing confusion into the marketplace, encouraging the likelihood of cybersquatting and requiring brand owners at great cost to monitor and protect against domain name abuse."