Global Ruling going to cause Chaos for Internet

IT and legal experts have predicted chaos on the internet following a global ruling adversely affecting the selling power of many of the high street’s largest brand names.

It follows a surprise decision by the body that controls the net to sanction a free-for-all online auctioning of disputed internet domain addresses.

In a landmark ruling, the California-based International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) decided last week that auctions will be staged whenever two organisations compete for the right to use a website name.

ICANN’s decision looks certain to cost blue-chip firms millions to sort out.

One senior tech source condemned the move as a “nightmare” for brand owners.

Andrew Watson, managing director of Quorum, an Edinburgh-based network resources firm, said: “It raises a whole host of issues around brands and trademarks and if a company can actually legitimately own a name.”

Following the ICANN ruling, once a brand name or derivation of that name is registered, the brand owner will need to act fast to be the first to claim that name for website addresses. Many will feel compelled to spend an inordinate amount of time and money buying their brand’s name on each of the new generic top-level domains expected to appear.