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The Real $ costs of Dot.Com Names

The rise of domain name choices  has become complicated and expensive.  It is estimated it now takes over $23,800 to register your name in all the 238 country extensions currently allowed.  And, shortly, additional .extensions proposed  under ICANN,  will come to market.  What do Entrepreneurs and Companies face?

A brief history.   The shortage of new ".com" names came about because of an old policy that suggested commercial names be ".com",  ".net" be  network related entities and ".org" reserved for non-profits.   By the late 1990's this policy was history and anyone could register for any name with the resulting advice  being  to register ".com", ".net", and ".org" for any name you were interested in.   It isn't that one would want to use all those names, but rather to keep anyone else from using them and poaching on the name or fame you had built up.  

Enter the rise of Popular Country Code Domain Names.  If three .names weren't enough, what about the various country extensions?  While over 238 exist, the popular ones such as ".tv" (Tuvlau), ".fm" (Federal State of Micronesia) have taken their place along standards such as ".uk" (England) and ".au" (Austrialia).   In the United States a domain name runs about $35. a year.  Not so in many foreign countries with fees much higher potentially coupled with  off shore litigation fees if there is a problem. 

What else is on the horizon?  ICANN, the body that is determining how to grant the next set of high level domain names, is sorting through dozens of very difficult issues including. 

1. Extensions that meet previously unmet needs.  ".kids", ".i" are two of the scores of proposed examples. 
2. Trademark issues.   If one has a trademark, do you have to buy the new extensions?  Currently there is a proposal for a Sunrise period to allow trademark holders to register for new domain names helping to prevent the "cybersquatting" that has plagued ".com" names.  But will one have to buy every name to protect it?

Conclusion.  For Entrepreneurs, finding a good ".com" name, creating a trademark and registering and defending it worldwide is a critical business issue.   Standards bodies such as ICANN are in place to help manage the opportunity monster the Internet has become.  But good marketing and sound trademark efforts will separate the memorable ".com" ideas from the forgotten.

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