Last Call: BC Position on New TLD Registry Agreement Amendments DAG v3

It appears the Verisign is trying to legitimize another form of domain name tasting by allowing the taster to "exchange" domain names every 30 days. This idea caters to short term speculators who just want to game domain names rather than buy domain names to run legitimate businesses. It's probably not quite as profitable as the 5 day AGP period, but still opens up the door for brand abuse. It's probably their strategy to deal with new gTLDs and it drives more traffic under a legitimized version of tasting.

Verisign claims they met with some members of the IPC (does anyone know who?) about this proposal and in order to address trademark concerns, they propose the following (see my comments following in brackets):

" Some members of the Intellectual Property constituency and certain registrars whose primary business is brand management have raised concerns similar to those raised in the development of policy concerning the use of the Add Grace Period ("AGP"). "

To address those issues the Domain Name Exchange Service will:

Allow domain names to be exchanged no sooner than thirty (30) days following initial registration or a prior exchange [30 Days still allows domain name speculating at a fraction of the cost of buying one domain name for a year -- you essentially get a chance to try 12 domain names over the year for the price of one]

Not allow a grace period following an exchange. [No "grace" period just means someone has to pay up front -- but again for the price of one domain name registration -- you get to taste multiple different names a year]

Publish a report that lists the domain names exchanged as part of a registration. [The burden and costs associated with monitoring this list will fall on the trademark owner]

Create a WHOIS/WHOWAS record for all domain names exchanged under the Domain Name Exchange Service. [ Is this free? I'm sure they will charge for this. How do we ensure that the information is accurate?]

Deploy the WHOWAS Service that was approved by ICANN on July 16, 2009 that will further increase transparency by providing (i) domain name registration history; and (ii) domain name exchange activity. [Increasing "transparency" isn't the same as fixing your business model to minimize the inevitable increase in trademark infringement]

Best,