ICANN orders re-evaluation of dot-gay

ICANN has ordered that the application for the dot-gay top-level domain be re-evaluated after 54 letters in support of it "inadvertently" fell through the cracks. Controversially, the application was rejected last year for not being gay enough. The independent evaluators argued, peculiarly, that since a large number of gay …

[Swarthy]

dot-inc

Actually, I could see a very interesting use for dot-inc; namely that the domain must match the incorporated business name. EG: Hershey's could register The_Hershey_Company.inc, but not hersheys.inc; this would avoid trademark disputes with, say, Hershey_Creamery_Company.inc

No more using product names for domains, Mars.inc could not have a separate Marathon.inc

Oooh.. and wholly owned subsidiaries are relegated to sub-domains: geico.Berkshire_Hathaway.inc

[Fibbles]

Re: dot-inc

Surely there'll only ever be abount 8 .inc domains, with most companies using absurdly long sub domains, eg;

AuntJemima.Quaker.PepiCo.inc

The commentard that can come up with the longest address wins one full internet.

[frank ly]

@Swarthy re. dot-inc

Those are also the rules for registration of a .ltd.uk domain; the name must exactly match the officially registered company name IIRC. I'm not sure about the rules for .ltd and .limited. It's confusing!

[jonathanb]

Re: dot-inc

That still leaves the problem of companies in different countries that have the same name. You could solve that by having for example .de.us.inc for Delaware, .ph.inc for Phillipines.

[Charles 9]

Re: dot-inc

What about companies that match names AND are in the same country but are allowed by the USPTO because they're in different industries? For example, the name "Cracker Barrel" is trademarked TWICE in the US, but both are allowed, as one is a brand name of cheese and the other is a restaurant/novelty store chain; ergo, they don't overlap. It wouldn't apply in the strictest sense here, but I could envision two companies with the same name but in different industries claiming the same CompanyName.inc. What then?

[the spectacularly refined chap]

Re: dot-inc

What about companies that match names AND are in the same country but are allowed by the USPTO because they're in different industries?

Don't confuse trademarks with legal company names - most jurisdictions have restrictions in place that guarantee uniqueness. It's particularly noticeable when people with a common name name their companies after themselves - the approach usually used is to disambiguate with the town or occasionally sector, so the first John Smith gets John Smith Ltd, the next couple get e.g. John Smith (Manchester) Ltd and John Smith (Leeds) Ltd.

The rules for ltd.uk require the full form is used for the domain registration and set out unambiguous procedures for how they are to be converted into technically acceptable domain names without the spaces, brackets etc.

[Khaptain]

Not gay enough

How does one determine the correct level gayness of a domain ?

What are the criteria: is it a sexual concept, hardcore concept, rainbow coloured tshirts concept:

The two gays that used to work in my office could not agree amongst themselves what being gay actually meant, so I can't even begin to imagine how the ICANN are making their decisions.

Would be interesting to see what the decisions for the gonzoness of a dot.gonzo would be.

[frank ly]

Re: Not gay enough

"... could not agree amongst themselves what being gay actually meant ..."

Is it like being Christian in that there are different denominations and different forms of 'worship', etc.?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not gay enough

"Is it like being Christian in that there are different denominations and different forms of 'worship', etc.?"

Giving and receiving?

[LaeMing]

Personally,

I am not really concerned what my dots do in their own time.

... < ooh! it's a threesome!