Alternate Roots

Another layer of confusion is added when one considers those entrepreneurial individuals who register a .COM, .NET or .ORG domain with a country code as the second-level domain name, such as, for example, UK.COM, United Kingdom, or BR.COM, Brazil, or even .EU.COM, European Union, and offer to lease space on the third-level of their domain names, such as ABC.BR.COM. Increasingly entrepreneurial individuals are offering to lease the third-level space to the owners of famous and well-known marks. As a practical matter, however, so long as these third-level domains are not put to use, it might not be cost effective or feasible to monitor or to prevent each and every one of these offered leases.

Finally, further confounding the current situation are those who choose not to obey the mandates laid down by ICANN, and have created their own Domain Name Systems which exist alongside the current DNS. One such example currently gaining popularity is a Registry called New.Net. New.Net sells domain name extensions that are more specialized than the domain extensions currently authorized by ICANN, including .AGENT, .ARTS, .AUCTION, .CHAT, .CHURCH, .LAW, .GOLF, etc. In order for these extensions, which are actually attachments to the .NET domain, to function, it is necessary for Internet users to download a "software patch" which allows their computers to resolve these domain names. According to New.Net's website, hundreds of thousands of people have already done so. Further information concerning New.Net can be found at its website located at WWW.NEW.NET. It remains to be seen what actions, if any, ICANN will take with respect to this "unauthorized" expansion of available domain name extensions, although discussions between the parties are underway.