LOS ANGELES – When some of the largest corporations in the world complain they’re being extorted, not even the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers can ignore the uproar.
ICANN has asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Canada’s Office of Consumer Affairs to investigate whether .sucks registry Vox Populi Ltd. is violating laws in either country by allegedly gouging celebrities and trademark holders. According to a letter ICANN sent to both government agencies, intellectual property owners have complained Vox Populi — which is located in Canada but registered in Grand Cayman — has jacked up “protected” domain names by a factor of 10 during the new domain’s first “sunrise” period.
According to Vox Populi’s website, trademark holders, celebrities and others who wish to protect their brands must pay an annual registration fee of $2,499 per domain. When .sucks domains become available to the general public in June, the retail price on those not already claimed will be $249.
Starting in September, some .sucks domains will be available for as little as $10 a year, Vox Populi’s site notes.
Also according to Vox Populi’s website, corporations including Google, Microsoft, Mastercard, Visa, Yahoo, Bank of America, Converse, Aflac, Ford Motor Co. and GoDaddy already have preemptively registered trademarks to prevent uses that might harm their brands. Those companies and others that are part of ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency body have labeled Vox Populi’s pricing scheme “coercive,” “a shakedown” and “predatory,” according to ICANN.
ICANN’s letter noted that if a government agency finds Vox Populi’s tactics illegal, it will declare the company in violation of its registry contract, though the letter stopped short of indicating what that might mean for Vox Populi. ICANN also said it may employ other reining-in remedies that are incorporated in the registry agreement.
Dot-sucks is one of 589 new Top-Level Domains ICANN has approved for implementation since the organization instituted a generic — or “kitchen sink” — TLD program under which almost any imaginable word may become a domain extension.
