InterNIC

How much do you think McDonald's dot com is worth? What could you sell MTV dot com for? Is there gold in them thar domains, as a lot of people seem to think, or is it just fool's gold? No one knows the answers to these questions, though they are being asked very pointedly in federal court, as well as in the boardrooms of a number of the nation's biggest companies.

In the meantime, a frenzy of domain name registration is going on at the InterNIC, or Internet Network Information Center, the agency that assigns domain names and rules on requests.

It's easy to find an unused domain name, and so far, there are no rules that would prohibit you from owning a bitchin' corporate name, trademarked or not.

The InterNIC staff has neither the time nor the inclination to scrutinize your application.

Not too long ago, I spoke to Scott Williamson, the person who supervises InterNIC registration, to find out what criteria the InterNIC uses to deny registration requests.

There are situations that raise two red flags, according to Williamson: if the name's already taken or if we catch an obvious one.

An obvious one, he explained, is a blatant attempt to register a name to which you're not entitled.

For instance, let's say Sprint Communications wanted to register MCI, a competitor in the long-distance telephone biz.

About two weeks later, after filling out the NetAvailable domain name application form, I got email notification from domreg at internic.net.

Registration for the domain mcdonalds.com has been completed.

The InterNIC database has been updated.

The new information will not be visible via Whois until the next business day.

My fingers trembled, as if ripping open a Big Mac.

How much do you think McDonald's dot com is worth? What could you sell MTV dot com for? Is there gold in them thar domains, as a lot of people seem to think, or is it just fool's gold? No one knows the answers to these questions, though they are being asked very pointedly in federal court, as well as in the boardrooms of a number of the nation's biggest companies.

In the meantime, a frenzy of domain name registration is going on at the InterNIC, or Internet Network Information Center, the agency that assigns domain names and rules on requests.

It's easy to find an unused domain name, and so far, there are no rules that would prohibit you from owning a bitchin' corporate name, trademarked or not.

The InterNIC staff has neither the time nor the inclination to scrutinize your application.

Not too long ago, I spoke to Scott Williamson, the person who supervises InterNIC registration, to find out what criteria the InterNIC uses to deny registration requests.

There are situations that raise two red flags, according to Williamson.

If the name's already taken or if we catch an obvious one.

An obvious one, he explained, is a blatant attempt to register a name to which you're not entitled.

How much do you think McDonald's dot com is worth? What could you sell MTV dot com for? Is there gold in them thar domains, as a lot of people seem to think, or is it just fool's gold? No one knows the answers to these questions, though they are being asked very pointedly in federal court, as well as in the boardrooms of a number of the nation's biggest companies.

In the meantime, a frenzy of domain name registration is going on at the InterNIC, or Internet Network Information Center, the agency that assigns domain names and rules on requests.

It's easy to find an unused domain name, and so far, there are no rules that would prohibit you from owning a bitchin' corporate name, trademarked or not.

The InterNIC staff has neither the time nor the inclination to scrutinize your application.

Not too long ago, I spoke to Scott Williamson, the person who supervises InterNIC registration, to find out what criteria the InterNIC uses to deny registration requests.

There are situations that raise two red flags, according to Williamson: if the name's already taken or if we catch an obvious one.

An obvious one, he explained, is a blatant attempt to register a name to which you're not entitled.

For instance, let's say Sprint Communications wanted to register MCI, a competitor in the long-distance telephone biz.

Now, more than 1,300 requests stream in each month.

Clearly, the InterNIC can't research every one of those names for trademark violations.

If we had to research every request for a domain name right now, I'd need a staff of 20 people, Williamson said.

So the policy is simple.

The problem with the Internet is, who's in charge? he added wryly.

When we figure that out, there will be a meeting.

But even if the InterNIC figures out some mechanism to more effectively weed out bad faith registrations, it can't go around protecting trademarks.

That would be too time-consuming and would be beyond the scope of its responsibilities.

About two weeks later, after filling out the NetAvailable domain name application form, I got email notification from domreg at internic.net.

Registration for the domain mcdonalds.com has been completed.

The InterNIC database has been updated.

The new information will not be visible via Whois until the next business day.

My fingers trembled, as if ripping open a Big Mac.