dotMobi

Prophetic Words Back In 1995 | The Outlook For An Open Internet

Recently dotMobi was criticized in the media by Verizon.  Somewhat oddly, the spokesperson sought for these comments was an Associate General Counsel whose responsibilities are not content nor growth of a mobile channel, but rather protection of Verizon's IP and trademark -- in other words, minimizing risk and ensuring the status quo.

As I thought about the reaction, I cannot say I am surprised.  There are a few operators, Verizon being one, that have simply not embraced the idea that the Internet has been an open system and that interoperability (not walled gardens) ensure growth.  But then again, many players try to keep the status quo if they feel an open Internet and consumer choice represents a risk to their present interests.

A few days ago, someone brought to my attention the following 1995 article in Wired magazine.  Remember 1995?  Internet was in its infancy and the then power player "AOL" was a closed and proprietary network.  Read the whole article here if you want or, read the exerpt after the jump, and draw your own parallel between 2006 and the proprietary walled gardens (and the state of denial) at AOL.

Oh.. how far we've come.

Sunrise Registrations And Trademark Validation

'Tee' recently queried whether dotMobi was monitoring registrations made during the trademark sunrise period. This is a question that has arisen many times over the course of the last few months.

Fraudulent registrations are, unfortunately, a reality for most TLDs and cyber-squatting is the bane of trademark holders worldwide. And as quickly as some TLDs attempt to take action, cyber-squatters rise to the challenge and devise increasingly sophisticated methods of thwarting the system.

In an attempt to address the problem and take a proactive stance, dotMobi made the decision earlier this year to engage PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to assist with a trademark validation exercise on its sunrise registrations. PwC, as many will be aware, assisted with the .eu validation process and dotMobi has benefited from some of the great experience gained by PwC during the launch of that TLD.

Tee is correct: It would be impossible (or at the very least extremely difficult) to verify every dotMobi registration, particularly when registrations are being clocked up on a daily basis. However, dotMobi has developed a proprietary and best practice process and is taking the case of fraudulent applications very seriously. dotMobi reserves the right to cancel such domains and is currently taking action on several bogus registrations. Unlike the .eu sunrise, we did not ask that registrants upload their trademark certificates when making a registration -- a practice viewed by many as particularly burdensome. However, we advised that registrants had their trademark documentation to hand lest they were called upon to verify their trademark information.

In addition, there is the dotMobi Sunrise Challenge Process administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. This process runs until December 15th and details can be found on the dotMobi website. A challenger may apply for the cancellation of a registration or, if they meet the sunrise trademark requirements, a direct transfer of the domain.

dotMobi is a strong supporter of the IP and trademark community and has put several other measures in place to protect trademark holders. For example, in order to participate during sunrise, trademarks had to have been registered before 11th July 2005 (the date on which dotMobi signed its contract with ICANN) or have been applied for before that date and registered by the time of domain name registration. This helped circumvent the flood of expedited "bad faith" trademark registrations seen by the Benelux Trademark Office at the end of 2005 in anticipation of the .eu launch. This step has been widely applauded by the trademark community.

Reaching out to the trademark community - Part 1

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time reaching out to the trademark, registrar and corporate domain management vendor communities during the dotMobi Trademark Sunrise period, and last week was especially busy and rewarding.

The week started with an overnight flight from DC to Dublin where I had the chance to attend a reception for our board members. A few photos are posted herein. The following day I spoke to the good folks at CPA Global in Europe to get their staff updated on dotMobi, and then the next day had the pleasure of being the guest speaker for VeriSign Digital Brand Management’s public web seminar entitled ".mobi – Ensuring Your Company is Ready." The audience hung around for the entire presentation, which is always a good thing! Tempy Wright with VeriSign moderated a lively Q&A session that followed. If you are interested in downloading the event recording, go to https://verisignevents.webex.com/verisignevents/onstage/tool/record/archives.php.

One question that seemed to come up a few times last week was: "Does my site need to be live once I register a .mobi name?" or "Are you guys going to turn off our site because it does not resolve?" In short the answers to both questions is "no." While we do have three very simple rules about what your site must do once it is live in order to ensure a consistent end-user experience (see our Switch On! Guide), there is no requirement that your registered .mobi name resolve to any page, parked or otherwise, upon registration. You are allowed to immediately begin using your registered names by resolving to a web page, but again it is not a requirement of registration.