ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, voted to reject the implementation of a .xxx top level domain for the third time. Neither the adult content industry nor religious groups liked the proposal, though for different reasons (pornography co’s think it will lead to more and easier government regulations and religious groups think it will validate and increase the number of adult content sites).

The only one that seems disappointed is the company that was seeking to oversee the registrations (obviously a lot of money at stake if the new TLD was to be approved)…

Domain name tasting is the practice of registering a bunch of domain names and monitoring them over a few days to see which receive enough traffic to generate ad revenue that exceeds the registration cost. The practice takes advantage of a “loophole” in the registration system that allows for a return of domain names up to five days after registration. It was designed to allow for corrections of legitimate mistakes, such as misspellings, but is now being regularly abused.

According to this article by the AP, Neiman-Marcus, the large retailer, is fighting back by accusing Name.com and Dotster.com of engaging in domain tasting by registering more than 40 domain names that allegedly make unfair use of Neiman-Marcus’ registered marks.

Microsoft, as part of their trademark protection strategy (which I have discussed before) is also after domain tasters. I’m sure other large trademark holders are actively patrolling for this, as well.

The National Arbitration Forum, an approved arbitration firm for resolving domain name disputes, announced this week that they saw a 21% rise in domain name arbitrations in 2006 compared to 2005. In total, 7,600 domain name disputes were filed with the NAF in 2006.

The probable reason for the increase is because of the continually rising values of a good domain name and the quick and relatively inexpensive resolution of these disputes with arbitration versus litigation under the ACPA. If someone is violating your trademarks with their domain name, a UDRP arbitration can often be the best way to get your domain names back…

Unlike many local offline businesses, when you’re operating an Internet business you obviously realize that you’re available world-wide to a world-wide customer base. This can lead to conflicts between your trademarks and those of a business owner many countries away.

Recently, Google had trademark difficulties with its “GMail” mark in Germany because it conflicted with a German company that had been using “Gmail” for its own services before Google. As reported here, “the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market has ruled against the search giant’s use of the Gmail name” in Germany because of the confusion. Google now has to use a different name for its popular free email service in Europe.

When you’re developing (or expanding) your online business, spend some time searching globally for other users of your intended mark. This may help you avoid problems as your business grows.