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ARTICLE · 29 FEBRUARY 2012

Is Your Company Ready For .Anything?

The Internet as we know it may soon be changing forever. From January 12, 2012, to April 12, 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expected to accept applications for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) to the right of the dot, where .com is now.

United StatesIntellectual Property

The Internet as we know it may soon be changing forever. From January 12, 2012, to April 12, 2012, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expected to accept applications for new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs) to the right of the dot, where .com is now.

New top-level domains can be generic names (such as .shoe), geographic names (such as .nyc), or even trademarks (commonly referred to collectively as ".brand" domains). The new system will permit companies to own domain names that consist of just their trademarks, without the .com or other gTLD. These new gTLDs also will be available in non-Roman scripts, such as Cyrillic, Chinese, or Arabic.

Such new top-level domain names won't be cheap. The filing fee alone is $185,000, with no guarantee the name will be awarded. The operating costs of running the registry for the new top-level domains may also be substantial, depending in part on whether the public will be allowed to register

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