Not long ago it was common for people to register domain names (www.mcdonalds.com, www.business.com, etc) in hopes of selling them at a profit. (It costs very little to register a domain name so you don't have to sell for much to make a profit.)
altavista.com = $3.3M
business.com = $7.5M
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit company established to assign internet domain names.
In the past courts have been the primary adjudicators of Internet domain name disputes.
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency, has established an international policy for resolving domain name disputes.
ICANN has adopted the policy which requires that domain-name registrants submit to third-party arbitration if they are accused of registering a name in bad faith. Arbitration is generally much faster and less costly than traditional lawsuits. Arbitration doesn't preclude lawsuits though.
It might be possible to retain a domain that matches a trademark if the owner is making legitimate noncommercial or fair use of mark.
You have to give up a domain name if all of the following are true:
1. The domain name is
identical or confusingly similar to a registered trademark
2. You have no legitimate interests to the domain name; and
3. You have registered and are using the domain name in bad faith.
Problem: trademark laws are administered at a national level.
One of the first names to be arbitrated was Worldwrestlingfederation.com. California resident registered the domain name and offered to sell it to the WWF "at significant profit" (actually only $1,000). During arbitration the California resident was considered to be acting in "bad faith" and the domain name was transfered to WWF. (Same story with juliaroberts.com.)
Arbitrators ruled in favor of the defendant in other cases. For example, Byers Choice Inc. registered two domain names: buyerschoice.com and byerschoice.com. Both addresses point to the same location. They registered buyerschoice.com to redirect customers who misspelled the correct address. They were allowed to keep the address buyerschoice.com even though Buyers Choice is a registered trademark of another company. Arbitrators ruled that Byers Choice had not acted in bad faith.
Could the WIPO become a model for how to handle intellectual property disputes in the Information Age? Note, disputes are handled through electronic communications and courier services rather than physical courtrooms.
Current top level domain names: .net, .com, .org.
New top level domain names have been requested from ICANN and approved:
.aero - aero space
.biz - business
.coop - cooperatives
.info - information
.museum - museums
.name - personal web sites
.pro - professionals. will probably include sub categories. ie larry-smith.ins.pro
where ins stands for the sub category insurance.
The cost of registering a new name can be as little as $15.