Name Your Price

Or How to Profit and Avoid Losing Your Shirt in 1his Domain Name Mess
By Heinz Bulos

ake out a dictionary. Log on to
www.register.com. Lnter each
word to check i a corresponding
domain name is still aailable or
registration. Do a random check i you
like.

\ou can stop now. Let us spare you the
agony. Oer 98 o the words in a
standard dictionary is already registered as
a .com domain name. All the words prior
to this sentence or instance hae been
taken. \ou won`t are any better inding
aailable word combinations that mean
something. \ou can get lucky adding an e-
, i-, or my- preix or an -online, -network,
or -net suix, unless it`s a generic name
like business, Internet, books, and the like.
\ou may be surprised that alphanumeric
gobbledygook like rtx and 1023 are
already taken. rtx1023.com is aailable
though. Gobbledygook.com is not.

\hether you`re a decades-old company or
an Internet startup, getting a domain
name ending in .com or een .org may be
an exercise in utility. Considering that
oer 2 million domains hae been
registered worldwide, 1 million o those
ending in .com, the chances o inding
one, at least one that you`re happy with, is
close to zero.

What's in a name?
hy do companies spend
thousands to millions o dollars
to buy a .com \hy do people
spends thousands in legal ees to sue
someone else oer a domain name lor
the ollowing reasons:

A domain name seres as your address on
the Internet. Granted that most people
ind sites using a search engine, it`s still
usually the irst instinct to simply type the
name o the company or person ending in
.com in the browser`s address box.
Someone looking or Ayala Corp.`s site
will type www.ayala.com, not www.ayala-
group.com. In the same manner, someone
looking or Business\orld`s site will type
www.businessworld.com, not
www.bworld.com.ph. ,see Case Study:
Brick-and-Mortar Companies`,

lor companies to etch in the minds o the
public their Internet address that happens
to be dierent rom their company
names, they hae to spend hundreds o
thousands in adertising and promotions,
i not years o mind conditioning. As with
real estate, a domain name is all about
location, location, location. I you want
your customers to ind you, either spend a
ortune getting the domain name o your
choice or spend a ortune promoting the
domain name you`re not too happy with.

A domain name is also your brand. A
brand, as marketers loe to point out, is
not just a name or a logo. It`s eerything
associated with your company or product.
On the Internet, that includes the user
experience, the design o your site, and
yes, your domain name. McDonalds took
decades to build its brand. Do you think it
will settle or mcdonaldscorp.com And
do you think it will allow a small-time
store or a porn site operator to own
mcdonalds.com O course not.
McDonalds wants mcdonalds.com
because people automatically associate it
with the burger company.

1his is as important or start-ups, perhaps
een more. 1hese companies are starting
rom scratch. 1hey hae zero name recall.
It will be much harder or them to build
1
\
their brand i it diers rom their domain
name. Imagine i Pets.com is actually
located in petsonline.com On the
Internet, your domain name is your brand.
,see Case Study: Startups`,

And with thousands o new Internet
companies worldwide, haing the right
domain name is crucial. 1he name must
stand out. One way to make it memorable
is to make it short. Another is to make it
descriptie o the nature o the business.
And or a time, adding the hot-words-o-
the-moment can translate to instant
wealth. lor instance, at the start o the
dot-com reolution, simply adding .com
at the end o a name is enough to make
inestors see dollar signs. And the preixes
e- and i- had the same impact as a .com.
Combined, it translated to big moolah.
1here`s ebay.com and etoys.com or
instance. 1hen generic names became all
the rage. lood.com, cooking.com,
business.com, wine.com, women.com,
you name it. 1he my- preix was also a
momentary ad. lere, pinoy- and phil-
preixes continue to be popular.

What's with the .com?
ut why .com \hat`s wrong with
.net Or country-speciic domains
like .ph or .com.ph lor one thing,
there`s the habit o automatically typing
.com at the end o the name.

But more than that is the hype that
surrounds the .com extension. A .com is
considered a prime domain. I the domain
name is like your street address, then
haing a .com is like being in the right`
street address. It`s the equialent o your
oice being located in Ayala Aenue. 1o
take it urther, a good name with a .com is
like being on 650 Ayala Aenue.

1he media and the inancial community
hae hyped .com to high heaens. 1he
term dot-com` is already part o popular
culture as it`s mentioned practically
eerywhere. 1here are .coms in billboards,
newspapers, magazines, radio, 1V,
paperbags, t-shirts, heck, een bananas.
1he U.S. stockmarket made millionaires
out o twentysomething entrepreneurs
who launched IPO`s o start-ups with no
track record and zero proits just because
they had a .com at the end o their names.
\e`re no exemption. \e saw how
Philweb.com`s stock price skyrocketed.

A .com, as opposed to country-leel
extensions, is considered global. I you`re
a start-up, you might hae a harder time
attracting inestors unless your name ends
with a .com. \ou`re, ater all, a dot-com
company, not a dot-com dot-ph or a dot-
ph company.

1hus the double dilemma o inding an
aailable domain name that ends with
.com.

1he Root of the Problem
he real and perceied alue o the
right .com domain name is based
on economics. On one hand, you
hae demand or domain names that hae
skyrocketed in recent years. On the other,
you hae dwindling supply. 1he result A
whopping >.5 million or Business.com,
which cost the original owner less than
>100. ,see low ligh Can \ou Go`,

Not een the real estate industry - to
which the domain name industry is oten
likened to ,it become an industry in
itsel, - can make a killing like that, at
least not in so short a time. And while
disputes oer land titles are a act o lie,
disputes oer domain names hae blown
into oten ridiculous proportions. ,see
lamous Cases`,

1hese twin absurdities o oer-blown
prices and disputes - plus the annoying
and unproductie search or an aailable
B
1
domain name - ind their causes to
seeral actors.

On the demand side are natural and
artiicial causes. Deinitely, the growth o
the Internet has contributed to the
problem. In January 1993, there were only
about 1.3 million hosts and a ew
thousand web sites. Not surprisingly, the
number o registered domains then were
only 21,000 compared to today's 2
million ,80 o those are .coms,. Recent
statistics rom the Domain Name Surey
show there are oer 2 million hosts
adertised in the DNS in January 2000
and 3.6 million web sites.

Obiously, the commercialization o the
Internet in the mid-nineties ushered in a
new era. Old Lconomy companies, who
hae been slow in realizing the
signiicance o the Net, started getting
their act together. 1hat includes grabbing
domain names that belong to them, and
then some. New Lconomy start-ups,
which sparked the dot-com reolution,
ueled the demand or domains.

Larly in the game, \eb-say indiiduals
saw the alue o well-known and common
domain names. Since registration was on a
irst-come-irst-sered basis, the irst-
comers snatched the good names. 1he
motie was certainly not just pecuniary.
Dan Parisi got whitehouse.com not to sell
it but to drie traic to his porn site
,although o course that allows him to sell
more ads,. Gerry Kaimo grabbed
pldt.com to poke un at the phone
company. Russel Boyd bought
juliaroberts.com as a paean to his moie
idol. lormer eejay Adam Curry took
mt.com partly because it was cool`. ,see
Case Study: Celebrity Sites`,

But in most cases, as real and legitimate
demand or domain names grew, so did
artiicial demand. And so arose the
problem o cybersquatting and hoarding.
According to Network Solutions, o the
2 million domain names registered, two-
thirds o them are actie. 1he rest are
sitting idly, either being held or uture use
but more likely waiting or
buyers,suckers. O the one-year old
domain names newly registered, two-
thirds were just temporary placeholders.
In act, o such sites, 35 are under
construction or orwarded, and 65 are
merely parked. ,see Case Study:
Speculators`,

\eb-say and enterprising indiiduals
realized early on that selling domain
names is an easy and ery proitable way
o making a quick buck. 1housands o
bucks, that is. Millions een. Although the
aerage resell price is the 5-digit leel in
the domain price bell cure, there are
quite a number o decent names in the
ew hundreds, just as there are quite a
number o good ones in the ew millions.
1he lucky ones got trademark names in
the early nineties and sold them to clueless
companies or a hety proit. 1he smart
ones bought generic names that became
highly in demand, making thousands to
millions o dollars. 1he naughty ones took
adantage o typo errors to deceie people
into their own sites. 1he pissed-o ones
took domain names with anti-, not-, -
sucks, or -stinks in them to oice their
protest. ,see Case Study: Protest and
Parody Sites`,

It`s not just greedy indiiduals who
participated in this mad scramble.
Corporations were just as guilty in the
senseless cyber land grabbing. One o the
more high-proile cases is Procter &
Gamble, which owns 100 generic domain
names like beauty.com, thirst.com, and
een armpits.com. 1hey now plan to sell
these at deinitely exorbitant prices.
llu.com, or instance may etch a cool
million. 1he technology pundits call this
reerse hijaacking. 1hen there are the
moneyed companies which, in eorts to
protect their names, hae registered or
purchased o the .net and .org ersions as
well as ariations o their domain names,
sometimes including terrribly mispelled
and anti- ersions.

1ogether, indiidual and corporate
hoarders own a third o all registered
domains that could hae been used by
others. Network Solutions, the aorite
whipping boy o the Internet community,
was also accused o not releasing expired
domains, apparently intending to resell
these to the public.

On the supply side, while the word and
letter combinations o .coms are
technically limitless ,you can now register
up to 63 characters, up rom 22,, who
wants to own ad3dhad82eSs2.com So
there really is a scarce supply o domain
names. But as with demand, this is also
partly artiicial. \hy can only one
company own Amazon.com 1here are
other parties that hae rightul use oer
the domain name. Going back to the
street address analogy, there are other
streets across the globe called Main. lor
that matter, New \ork is also in Cubao.
It`s the same with telephone numbers. But
there are country and area codes or
telephones that allow multiple identical
numbers to co-exist. As zip codes or
addresses. I the supply starts to dry up,
the goernment can always add extra
digits and open up a deluge o aailable
numbers.

On the Internet, this is possible. New
extensions can be added. In act, there are
already existing country codes. So
technically, there can be an Amazon.us
and an Amazon.ph. I the proposed
extensions are approed, there can also be
an Amazon.biz, and Amazon.store, and
an Amazon.irm. 1here can een be an
Amazon.books, and an Amazon.rier, and
an Amazon.women, i need be. ,see New
1LDs`,

But or years, the aailable extensions or
companies were limited to .com and .net,
along with the country-speciic codes.
Many non-U.S. companies adopted their
country codes. lardly anyone in the U.S.
used their assigned .us extension.

And so, i only .com did not take on such
an artiicial alue and rom the onset more
extensions were introduced, there might
not hae been such a mess. 1his mess can
be blamed in large part to the way the
assignment o names was handled. lrom
one guy, Jon Postel doing all the work and
the U.S. goernment`s reusal to interere,
to Network Solutions` monopoly and
ICANN`s slow and secretie
management, it has been a web o
conusion and ineiciency. But this is an
entirely dierent story.

And what am I supposed to do?
s you can see, this is a real and
conusing mess. 1hose who
missed the boat still hae options.

I you own the local trademark and
someone`s inringing on it, irst you can
take the case to an international arbitrator
like the \IPO. I the domain holder
registered it in bad aith`, as deined in
the dispute resolution policy that ICANN
drated, you will most likely win. Second,
you can sue the domain name holder in a
local court. I you own the trademark, this
is yours or the taking. 1hird, you can buy
the domain name or more than the
original cost, as some local companies
hae done ,see
SanMiguelCorporation.com or >500`,.

O course, it`s not that easy. low do you
go about complaining to the \IPO
\hat i the domain name holder is based
A
abroad low do you drag the culprit to
Quezon City low much are you willing
to spend or the name \hat i the holder
reuses to sell

1hat`s why most local companies just go
the .com.ph or .ph route. Or the name
ariant option. Mostly it`s because they
had no choice as the .com has been taken.
But it`s not uncommon that many which
had set up web sites early enough opted
or a .com.ph, een though a .com was
aailable. And a lot o local companies
who did manage to get a .com did not
bother buying a .net or ariations o their
names. ,see lirst .Com lirst Sered`,

I you`re a startup, you hae more leeway
as you`re not stuck with an existing name.
lere, you still hae relatiely more
choices. 1hat is, i you opt or a lilipino
word or a proper name. \ou could go or
a phil- or pinoy- preix or an -exchange
suix, combined with a generic and
descriptie name, but you`ll be competing
with dozens o sites with the same preix
or suix.

A lilipino word or word combination is
ine, as long as your target market are
lilipinos. Otherwise, it could be limiting.
But then again, it can be the equialent o
a made-up, meaningless word like llooz,
Google, or Gooey. 1here`s a U.S. site
called Andale.com. 1o be acetious about
it, you can use Masmadale.com and the
name could come o to oreigners as
catchy.

A second look at .com
ow, as most lilipino sites are
indeed primarily or a lilipino
market, is there then a point to
the discussion Perhaps i we do not
imbibe the .com hype, we wouldn't hae a
big mess ourseles. But is this something
we can help \e may hae been obliious
to the hype just a couple o years ago but
the local Internet industry and lilipino
companies are now just starting to be
bitten by the dot-com bug. 1his is
America circa 1995.

But beore the dot-com craze swallows us
up, perhaps it`s a good idea to examine
the alleged beneits o a .com.

Maericks such as Scott Rosenberg o
Salon.com question the supposed
adantages o a .com, particularly generic
.coms: "A lot o the claim-the-domain-
name renzy stems rom a group o
questionable assumptions: that 1, people
are stupid and can't ind anything on the
Net, so that 2, they will type words in
their browser window thinking that it
unctions like a search engine, so that 3, i
you grab the domain names or basic
words like "lind" or "Buy" or "Sell" you
will be sitting on a gold mine."

Naming experts agree, such as popular
marketing positioning expert Al Ries
agrees on that last point, as he writes in
his book, 1he 11 Immutable Laws o
Internet Branding`. lis ourth law, 1he
Law o 1he Proper Name`, emphasizes
the use o a proper name, as 1he kiss o
death or an Internet brand is a common
name.`

Going back to Rosenberg`s irst argument,
Internet surers indeed are not that stupid
as to gie up searching i, ater typing a
.com ater www.ayala, they are led to a
dierent site. As studies show, search
engines remain the primary way people
ind sites. 1he 10
th
GVU \\\ User
Surey alidates that search engines, ater
links rom other sites, are the most
common way or users to ind out about
sites. In our context, it has become
second nature to typing an additional .ph
i www.ayala.com is not what we`re
looking or. \ould you hae guessed
www.ayala-group.com Doubtully. But
N
you ind it i you do a search on
\ehey, or instance. A word to the wise:
1hey may not ind you on the irst or
een second try, but they ind you. It`s
not rocket science.

As or your domain name being your
brand name, this may be true or startups
and Internet spinos o brick-and-mortar
companies. 1he need to add an e-, i- ,
cyber-, -net, -online, and .com is a way to
position the company as an Internet
company. O course as names with these
add-ons saturate the market, as they did in
the U.S., they start to become cliches and
lose their eectieness. 1o aoid this
altogether, a proper or made up name may
just be the best way to rise aboe the
clutter. As Salon`s Rosenberg argues, just
about eery signiicant new consumer
brand on the Internet has eoled by
taking a label that didn't mean much by
itsel and inesting it with an identity and
a reputation slowly, oer time, through
good serice and smart marketing.` 1hink
\ahoo, Amazon, Ask Jeees, and Google.

Recently, there has been a backlash on
dot-coms. A group o sel-styled San
lrancisco reolutionaries who call
themseles KilltheDot` placed posters
and stickers all oer the city bearing
slogans like
Blow1heDotOut\ourAss.com,
ButIDon'tNeedMy1oothPasteDeliered.c
om, and
AnythingIloundInMyGaragelorSale.com
to protest the way the dot-com culture has
gotten out o control.

In April this year, the NASDAQ ell
down 2 percent in one week - the
biggest stock market drop in recent
history - as inestors wisened up and
start-ups like Boo.com and DLN olded
and sites like Drkoop.com and Oxygen
laid o workers. 1hese public and market
reactions made many Internet companies
drop the .com rom their names.

And maybe, what will deal the deathblow
to .com would be a new naming system.
\hat i one day, no one has to type .com
at the end o the name 1hat`s what new
naming systems like RealNames are now
doing. RealNames, which has the backing
o Microsot and is now being used by
major search engines, uses keywords that
can be owned by more than one party.
1he word United` or instance will list
seeral websites instead o just one, unlike
united.com, which will lead to only one
site. Also, unlike in the current registration
system where potential trademark
conlicts are raised ater the act,
registration in RealNames is subject to
reiew. 1he company has also decided not
to sell generic or categorical names like
books, pets, music, etc. 1his is howeer
not yet the standard, but it`s the biggest
player so ar. 1hese so-called namespace
systems will one day replace the current
DNS, the same way DNS replaced, or at
least coered, IP addresses as the way o
inding sites.

\hether it`s RealNames or some other
system, and despite the current
mishandling o ICANN o the situation,
it`s certain the Internet industry will ind a
way o eliminating the eiciencies
inherent in the Internet addressing system.
\ithin the decade, our kids would read
about all the articles about the domain
name mess and scratch their heads on
what the brouhaha is all about.

Sidebar: Brick and Mortar Companies
Ayala Corp. is recently positioning itsel as
a New Lconomy company, setting up
iAyala to oersee its Internet strategy and
giing its brick-and-mortar companies like
BPI and Ayala Land a cyber acelit. It
also launched seeral websites, including
its B2C plays myAyala.com,
Glorietta5.com and Sureseats.com.
It`s interesting how this holding
conglomerate that is trying to Netiy` the
entire group o companies is handling the
issue o domain names. Dennis Sy,
Business Deelopment Oicer o
LDINet, says both myAyala` and
Sureseats.com` came rom a naming
serice company that Ayala Corp and
Ayala Land hired. Sureseats actually is a
cleer and apt name or this serice,
which lets moiegoers resere tickets
online. And it`s a lucky thing it`s still
aailable. myAyala, while appropriate, may
not be as creatie and original a name, and
might conuse people with iAyala, another
cliched naming strategy.
1here are o course seeral other
corporate sites, and or Ayala, the guiding
principle is the .com takes precedence i
the company is targetted to do global
marketing, while the .com.ph is
satisactory or products and serices that
are conined to the country only.

Ayala.com is registered by a U.S.-based
company called Mailbank.com which
oers the name Ayala as a anity e-mail
address. Dennis insists that i eer the
domain name is oered to them or sale,
the company will neer tolerate nor
support such 'blackmailing' actiities done
by unscrupulous indiiduals. 1here is
always a better alternatie and this is why
we resorted to ayala-group.com instead.`

And as conglomerates hae done in the
U.S. and other countries, Dennis is o the
opinion that or sites that use a company`s
domain name to criticize the company, i
its already destroying the name and
reputation o a conglomerate or
corporation, then steps must be done in
order to control the loose cannon who is
doing all the damages.`

Dennis also does not see any problems
using a URL like www.ayala-group.com
instead o www.ayala.com. I your
marketing campaigns and marketing
programs are well unded, and i you're
really consistent in your publicity, then
promotion would neer be a problem at
all.`

lor Internet start-ups, including spinos
o large companies, the right domain
name remains important, particularly
because o the recall actor. 1he best
name, according to Dennis, is one that
best describes your irm, your products
and serices.`
lor brick-and-mortar companies seeking
their entry into the New Lconomy,
Dennis adises, Come up with a name
that best describes your site. Since most
names hae already been taken, choose
something else that is best related to what
your site is doing or about to proide and
not necessarily your SLC registered
business name.` And i you hae a big
budget, you can jumpstart your operations
i you acquire the serices o a name
sericing company or ad agency. It may be
costly, but in return, you get the adantage
o speed to market and as we all know,
the Internet game is all about irst moer
adantage.`

Sidebar: Startups
latchAsia is probably one o the most
publicized incubators in the country. So
ar, it has one hatchling, Our1ur.com,
although it receies hundreds o business
plans. It was set up by the same group
behind DlNN.com, the irst dot-com to
hae an IPO in the local stockmarket.
Ramon Garcia, who is the CLO o
DlNN and VP o Marketing at
latchAsia, was the one who came up
with the names. DlNN actually is an
abbreiation o Diersiied linancial
News Network and latchAsia is short or
lelping Asian 1echnopreneurs Clange
ASIA.
latchAsia is a cleer choice or a name,
and while naming experts discourage the
use o abbreiations, DlNN managed to
oercome such alleged disadantages and
grab the attention o media and the
inestor community through smart and
consistent marketing.
As an incubator o Internet start-ups, it`s
interesting what latchAsia`s take is on the
domain name issue, particularly the
conentional wisdom that incubators and
inestors preer a .com oer a cc1LD
domain. According to Dondi Mapa,
Managing Director o latchAsia, since
they are looking or Asian regional or
global plays, they consider the .com more
aluable than .ph.

Paying millions or a domain name is not
an attractie option. Dondi says i there
were 1LDs like .INC or .lIRM or .LA\,
and so on, there would be not as much
updward price pressure.
\hile he inds alue in a .com, the
domain name itsel does not guarantee
instant success. It depends on who your
target market is. Same as a company or
store name. 1he name is hardly eery
typed in anyway, so what is important is
its ability to coney a brand image and to
build on that image in as many ways
possible.` As in the case o DlNN.com.

lor startups looking or a brand name,
Dondi shares the opinion o marketing
technology pundits, again, this is a
marketing issue. 1here are no sureire
guarantees. \ho eer thought eBay or
Amazon would be successul based on the
name`

Sidebar: How High You Go?
And you`re complaining about the >35
registration ee Only time will tell i these
companies who paid these sums o money
were smart inestors or idiots.

Business.com
>.5 million

AsSeenOn1V.com
>5.1 million

Altaista.com
>3.3 million

Loans.com
>3 million

\ine.com
>2.9 million

Autos.com
>2.2 million

\allstreet.com
>1 million

Sidebar: Iamous Cases

Juliaroberts.com
Julia Roberts s. Russel Boyd
\inner: Pretty \oman wins based on
common law trademark rights in her
name

Madonna.com
Madonna Ciccone s. Dan Parisi
\inner: the case is still ongoing, although
it looks like the Material Girl will lose this
one

Clue.com
lasbro s. Clue Computing
\inner: Daid Clue Computing wins as
court rules that a trademark is not
automatically entitled, there`s no dilution,
and clue` is a common word

Ltoy.com
Ltoys s. Ltoy
\inner: Artist group Ltoy harnesses Net
community to orce online retailer to drop
suit

1eenmagazine.com
1een Magazine s. Blue Graity
Communications
\inner: 1een Magazine gets back name
or porn site operator

\hitehouse.com
\hitehouse s. Dan Parisi
\inner: Dan Parisi still owns the porn site

M1V.com
M1V s. Adam Curry
\inner: M1V gets back their name rom
their ex-deejay

Case Study: Speculators
Speculating, that is, buying generic
domain names that do not inringe on
trademarks and selling them at a higher
price, is a legitimate business, as opposed
to cybersquatting, which is registering
domains in bad aith.

Locally, there are at least two sites that
buy and resell lilipino-related domain
names. One is JMX1rade, which owns a
number o generic domain names, and the
other is Jaz Associates, which trades a big
inentory o corporate domain names.
1hen there are indiidual speculators who
hope to make a ew bucks on generic
names.

Jed Domingo, Secretary General o
PLD1i, has a handul o .ph domains that
he hopes to sell in the uture. Super Perez
o Bayani.com, has twenty one domain
names, but has no plans o selling them.

lor those who want to go into the
domain reselling business, it`s better to
play sae and smart. Jed adises, aoid
names that may be or are surely associated
with someone else already. 1he best
domains in terms o making a proit and
aoiding being sued are simple, generic
words preerably in Lnglish that carry a
lot o commercial alue...the shorter, the
better.`

Super adds, to aoid being sued, don`t
put anything that would be damaging to
anyone ,unless necessary or to protect
others,, don`t go to the company or
person and sell the domain to them, and i
the majority o the country's legislators are
moronic enough to approe 1ito Sotto's
bill, transer the domains to a relatie in
the U.S. Let`s see what they can do then.`
1ake note, Mario Cruz.

Case Study: Celebrity Sites

Ronnie Miranda is known or being the
webmaster o many popular local
actresses, and or haing married one -
Alice Dixson. Recently, he started
adertising CharleneGonzales.com,
MikeeCojuangco.com, SharonCuneta.net,
and SharonCuneta.org or >250 each.

Obiously, his clients weren`t interested
,two years ago, he suggested that they
register these domain names, but they
didn`t see any need or it,, and he decided
it made business sense to sell them to the
open market.

Regardless, Ronnie beliees as ar as
common names o people are concerned,
the game is irst-come-irst-sered. No
one has any exclusie rights to any name
especially common names.` le cites the
madonna.com case. I this an is using
madonna.com to reer to the Virgin Mary,
then I guess, Madonna will not win. But i
the an is using madonna.com to reer to
Madonna the singer, then she'll probably
win the case.` In the same way, Charlene
Gonzalez can be a name o some Spanish
or Puerto Rican person.`

lor celebrities who ind their names
registered already, Ronnie adises to just
look or ariations. And he practises what
he preaches. le shares, someone
registered and is selling back to me the
domain name o my wie
'alicedixson.com' or >1,000. O course at
irst I got pissed o at the guy.` le
decided to just use alice.dixson.com.

Besides, there are other Alice Dixsons in
the world ,he knows o two, who hae
the same right to own the domain name.
1here is so much or eeryone - just be
creatie.`

Case Study: Protest and Parody Sites

1he irst and only domain name-related
case in the country is, as eeryone knows,
pldt.com. It`s been one year now, and
Gerry Kaimo still doesn`t oresee ictory
or anyone in the near or een almost
distant uture.

One would think PLD1 doesn`t hae a
case, as it doesn`t own the trademark, and
there`s no basis or alleged unair
competition. It`s also puzzling why it took
PLD1 two years beore suing Gerry. One
may enture the theory that PLD1, as
with most local companies, took the .com
or granted, settling or.com.ph, not
understanding the implications ,they did
register the .com at irst but ailed to
extend when it expired,. It was perhaps
only because PLD1.com was used as a
parody site that irked PLD1 management.
As Gerry notes, there were two preious
owners o the domain name, and PLD1
did not complain.

1here are interesting what i` scenarios
in this case. \hat i PLD1 actually owned
the trademark, would Gerry hae gien up
the site leck no, they may own it
locally, but this is the third world, not the
center o the unierse.` le insists PLD1,
at least on the Net, does not hae the
uniersal right oer this our-letter
acronym. I you recall, they seek to ban
worldwide use o those our letters by
anyone not in their employ in meta tags or
any other manner. 1o this I say in a loud
oice - DUl.`

Now, what i PLD1 takes the case up to
an international arbitrator like the \IPO,
will they win I they brought this case as
presented in court to the \IPO, it is
highly
likely that they would be laughed out o
the building.` Besides, een i they win,
local rulings still preail. In this case,
Network Solution, Inc. airmed that the
case will be placed under local courts.

Gerry calls PLD1`s actions Marcosian
tactics`, starting with an ex-parte ruling
,just an order to surrender the domain
with no hearing,, then a subpoena which
they ailed to get, then a 1RO, which they
again ailed to get, and now the case is
being heard on its merits.

In the U.S., many protest and parody sites
using -sucks and -stinks suixes are losing
their arbitration cases. 1his only adds to
the growing resentment that ICAAN and
its arbirtators are aoring big business.
Gerry says it`s the signs o the times`,
with big business making their presence
elt in a big way. It's all up to the
ICANN now, whether the Internet will
surie as a testament to indiidual
empowerment or again be lost to the rich
and powerul.`

In such cases, it becomes an issue o
reedom o speech. I thought this was a
ree country, till a PLD1 witness testiied
that I was being sued primarily or writing
articles that illustrated some o their bad
policies and mentioned their bad serice.`

It`s a lot o trouble to be sued oer a
domain name, especially by moneyed
corporations. lor the owner o Clue
Computing, who won clue.com against
toy conglomerate lasbro, Inc., it cost him
his marriage, our years wasted time, and
thousands o dollars in legal ees. lor
Gerry, he admits it is taking its toll, as it
has aected my business concerns, but I
guess that is what they had in mind to
begin with. linancially, I am losing
money, maintaining the site, paying
lawyers, etc. But hey, psychologically I
hae not had so much un in decades.`


Sidebar: New 1LDs
ICANN is currently accepting
applications or new 1LDs ,top leel
domains,, in addition to the existing .com,
.net, .org, .go, .edu, .mil and the cc1LDs.
1his has been discussed years ago but it`s
only now that concrete action is being
taken. 1hese new extensions will most
likely be introduced next year, although
which ones and how many are still in
question. And while some registrars are
pre-empting ICANN by accepting
registration or .web, .art, .sex, etc., there`s
no real guarantee. lere are some
suggested domains ,some o them just
.sucks,:


1he good ones ...and the bad
.biz, .irm, or .inc or business sites .dds or dentists and .llb or lawyers
.mo, .radio, .music or entertainment sites .isnotgreen or enironmental groups
.news and .ino or news and inormation .isnotair or ciil rights groups
.home and .kid or personal and children
sites
.ham or amateur radio bus
.gallery or photo gallery sites .casino or casino operators



Sidebar: SanMiguelCorporation.com
for $7S00

Jaz Associates, a U.S. irm with a
representatie oice here, seems to be
sitting on a gold mine. Or a time bomb.
1hey own hundreds o domain names o
amiliar local companies, including
aboitizequity.com, abs-
cbninteractie.com, allasialie.com,
asbrealty.com, ayalacorporation.com. And
we`re just starting with the the letter a`.
According to Christan Kell i Jaz
Associates` Internet Aairs Legal
Diision, their monthly turn-around is
between 100 to 500 names. 1hey`e
managed to sell hundreds o names
already, some to U.S. domain name
resellers like Domain louse and
Buydomains who in turn sell them to the
open market. Christian estimates that they
hae brokered oer 1,500 names or the 5
years they`e been in operation. Domain
louse`s minimum price is >300, with the
aerage at >4,500. \e asked or the price
or Sanmiguelcorporation.com, and the
oer was >,500. 1hat`s more than
P300,000. SMC is sticking with
sanmiguel.com.ph. Other domains were
purchased by indiiduals whose names
sound like lilipino. Some were legitimate
users. And there were o course the local
companies themseles. low much did
they pay Christian would not disclose
speciics, but says the aerage price is
>10,000, with one entity ,not necessarily a
lilipino irm, paying up >250,000.

Christian insists there is no trademark
iolation at issue here. le likens domain
names to a telephone number, lor
example, 1-800-buy-cars would be plainly
1-800-289-22. Anybody would easily
remember 1-800-buy-cars as opposed to
the actual telephone number, 1-800-buy-
cars cannot be trademarked unless it is the
actual name o the business in the physical
world.` le says ariations to a trademark
name does not gie the trademark holder
exclusie rights to those ariations,
otherwise, they should trademark them as
well. lurthermore, since there can be
trademark owners in other countries, they
also hae as much right oer the same
domain name. It is a grae error to say
that a domain name in the list is a lilipino
company based on your knowledge since
you are basing it on companies that you
know that are in the Philippines. A
domain name can actually be used by
another company that is in Arica that
might hae the same real world name.`
1hose who hae been beaten to a .com
can always resort to a ariation, a .net or a
country leel extension. 1he game has
always been irst come-irst sered. \eb
names are not trademarks as each \eb
name owner merely leases the \eb name
rom ICANN or it's registrars to help
people ind their spot on
the Internet easier.` lere`s a sampling o
what they sold:

Domain name Sold to
Abensons.com Neil 1an, New Jersey
AllAsiaCapital.com All Asia Capital & 1rust Corporation
Barrioliesta.com Dario Sunga, Caliornia
BeernaBeer.com George Sherwood, Virginia ,a personal site,
LquitablePCI.com 1obi Reyes, Caliornia ,although an
alternate address shows he
Manila-based Impact Inormation Systems,
lrenchbaker.com Coutaudier, Lyon
Glorietta.com, Gloriettamall.com Billy Samson, 1aipei ,a legit e
site, but an alternate address shows he`s
rom Sta. Mesa,
Motolite.com RAMCAR
RajoLaurel.com Michael Dizon, San Juan ,looks oicial,
RobinsonsLand.com Robinsons Land Corporation
SMPrime.com SM Prime loldings, Corp.



Sidebar: Iirst .Com Iirst Served

A lot o listed Old Lconomy companies are transorming themseles into Internet stocks,
een to the point o a complete name change. Looking at the list below, you`d wonder how
some don`t een hae websites, and others are stuck with odd names or a .com.ph extension.
A ew though got lucky.

Company Domain Notes
ABS-CBN. abs-cbn.com Not abscbn.com 1hat`s being sold at
Domainlouse.com. So don`t orget the
hyphen.
Ayala Corp. ayala-group.com lard to guess. \ou can also ind them at
ayala.com.ph and they bought
ayalacorp.com rom Jaz Associates.
Ayala.com is taken by Mailbank.com as a
anity email address. By the way,
ayalagroup.com ,without the hyphen, is
registered by a guy in Project 4.
AJO.net ajonet.com \ou`ll think the logical URL is ajo.net, but
that`s taken by a ree web-based email
proider in Ajo, Arizona
Benpres loldings benpres-holdings.com Not bad, though hard to guess.
Benpres.com is parked by a reseller.
BPI bpi.com.ph Bpi.com is owned by Business Products,
Inc.which has now become Rushcreek
Solutions. lmm, attention Mr. Xaier
Loinaz!
Cyberbay Corp. none Cyberbay.com is owned by a single product
company with a cheap site.
Digitel digitelone.com Digitel.com is owned by Digital, Inc. In
New \ork. But digitelone is not a bad
name, it`s their brand or their Net serices.
Lasycall easycall.com.ph Lasycall.com is owned by Lasy Call, Inc. in
Chicago, currently under construction.
lirst e-Bank Corp. 1stebank.com.ph 1stebank.com is or sale, minimum >1,000.
1ste-bank.com is under construction.
Globe 1elecom globe.com.ph Globe.com is ownede by the Boston
Globe. Globe-telecom.com is or sale at
Jaz Associates. Globetelecom.com is
owned by a lady in Caliornia. Ayala owns
globetelecom.net though. 1he one with a
hypen is also ree.
Global Lquities none Globalequities.com, with or without the
hyphen are taken.
Imperial Resources none Still in pre-operations, although you can
expect a name change
Ionics ionics.com.ph Ionics.com is owned by Ionics, Inc. in
Massachusetts
Island Mining none Changed name to IMIC. Uh, imic.com is
taken.
JG Summit jgsummit.com Lucky them.
Megaworld megaworld.com.ph Megaworld.com is taken, just a bunch o
links.
Music music-ic.com 1his is a irst -- they registered it irst and
sold it to a music site, making some serious
money. But music-ic.com \ho could hae
guessed that
Philweb philweb.com 1hat`s easy enough.
PLD1 pldt.com.ph Pldt.com is owned by Gerry Kaimo.
Solid Group sen.com.ph Solidgroup is taken by someone in Israel.
Sen.com.ph luh
SPI 1echnologies spitech.com Not bad.
Union Bank unionbankph.com Doesn`t sound or look good, but
unionbank.com is taken by a dierent
Union Bank
Vantage none But it`s acquired companies hae.
Iantage.com is taken already though by
iVantage Bank.
\ellex none \ellex.com is taken by another \ellex
company.