United States: Stake Your Claim On Your Dot Biz Domain

One of the greatest races in history, started at noon on September 16, 1893. More than 100 years ago, homeseekers and opportunists gathered along 165 miles of the southern borders of Kansas. They were there to race for approximately 6 million acres of land, extending 58 miles to the south.

John Edward Hicks, Cherokee Strip Was Pandemonium, Kansas City Times, Sept. 14, 1968.

Today businesses and opportunists are submitting their claims to acquire intellectual property in the form of dot-biz domain names, which means that trademark owners must take action to secure the domain names they want and to take advantage of the special protections that preregistration offers against potential infringement and cybersquatters. Dot-biz is among the first new generic top-level domain names ("gTLD") to be introduced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") since .com, .net, and .org became operational 15 years ago. Dot-biz is a restricted gTLD, available only for commercial or business purposes. ICANN has accredited NeuLevel, a neutral third-party provider of global registry services, with the operation of the .biz domain-name registry.

The three-step registration process will work as follows:

1. Intellectual Property Claim Service. From May 21, 2001, through August 6, 2001, businesses and individuals may submit an intellectual property ("IP") claim for a mark in which it holds IP rights to NeuLevel for a fee. Filing an IP claim affords the claimant special protections if a subsequent .biz applicant attempts to register a claimant's name or mark. The applicant is notified of potential infringement of the claimant's IP rights in the domain name for which the application is being made. If the applicant decides to continue with the registration, the claimant will be notified and given an opportunity to challenge the registration using the Start-up Trademark Opposition Policy ("STOP"). STOP carries a lower burden of proof than the standard Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy that will be used after the .biz launch. It is important to note that filing an IP claim is not an application for the name itself. A second application is required to register the domain name.

2. Domain-Name Application And Selection. From June 25 through September 17, 2001, businesses and individuals may submit applications to register .biz domain-name requests before the .biz registration process officially begins. An unlimited number of applications may be submitted through ICANN-accredited registrars for a fee of $2. Dot-biz domain names will be awarded from September 26 through September 30, 2001, without bias to any ICANN-accredited registrar. If multiple registrations are submitted for the same domain name, NeuLevel will randomly select one applicant to whom the name will be awarded. Upon successfully obtaining a .biz domain name, an applicant will have to pay an additional registration fee. This fee will be determined by the registrar and will depend on the length of the registration term, which must be at least two years.

3. Dot-Biz Goes Live. On October 1, 2001, .biz domain names that have been awarded will become active, and the application process will again open for businesses to apply on a first-come, first-served basis for .biz domain names not previously registered.