Simply put, domain names are Internet addresses-simplistic directions for finding a company's 24-hour, 365-day branch in Cyberia. While in the real world, you'd need to know on which street in Prabhadevi, Mumbai, the MaxTouch office is located, on the Internet all you need to know is a one-line URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - www.maxtouch.com - to help you get to their virtual office.

Today, three years after the Internet was made publicly available in India, companies are slowly realising the importance of a domain name. Having a domain name that is the same as the company or product name is an important part of establishing an Internet presence, and extending its corporate identity and brand into cyberspace. But many companies are also realising that they've lost their preferred domain name to someone else who already beat them to it-intentionally or otherwise.

There are two kinds of domain names-generic and country-specific. Generic domain names are global and typically end with a dotcom (commercial: citibank.com), dotnet (network: netventures.net), or dotedu (educational: jbims.edu). Country-specific names, on the other hand, end with an abbreviation of the country (dotin: India; dotjp: Japan; and dotuk: UK). The ubiquitous nature of global domain names account for their popularity, as compared to a country-specific domain name, specially when the company is a player in global markets. People looking for the TCS website more often automatically key in www.tcs.com, while some look at www.tcs.co.in. Either way, they are taken to the Tata Consultancy Services website.

The registration of global domain names is done on a first-come-first-serve basis by authorised registration bodies worldwide. With current registration rates being a pittance, at US$ 35 a year, almost anyone can register a choice domain name that's available. And since the registrants are only in charge of registering domain names, they don't really have the resources to keep a constant check on each and every name registered, to see if it violates an existing trademark or brand name.

As a relief measure, in cases when a domain name ownership conflict arises, a name registration is put on hold if the contesting company shows it owns the rights to a trademark on the disputed domain registration. Hutchison.com is one domain that is currently on hold, since it is registered by BeezWeb Productions, a company that has nothing to do with Hutchison Max.

The problem arises from the fact that the Internet does not recognise geographical boundaries-it is a global medium. Many companies today find that they are deprived of their preferred domain names by cyber-squatters-people who registers domain names that include the names of companies, celebrities or products, with the intent of profiting from reselling or trading them.

The first publicly identified trademark problem arose when a reporter discovered that `Mcdonalds.com' had not been registered. He registered that name, and tackled the issue in an article in Wired magazine. The `payoff' in this case was a $3,500 donation made to a public school by McDonald's for releasing the domain name to the company. In a situation where a preferred domain name is already registered, a company can:

Choose a similar domain name (say lyndoncompany.com, instead of lyndon.com)

pay to buy the rights for the domain name (Compaq recently paid US$3.3 million for altavista.com to the original owners, Altavista Technology Inc.),

or fight for the domain name in court (coke.com was registered by and belonged to an NRI, Rajeev Arora, until Coke won its case against him). A point to be kept in mind is that domain name pirates fall easy prey to traditional trademark law. Which means that an individual cannot own a domain name that infringes on a trademark like Coke.

Another problem is domain name hoarding. In this case, the domain names that are registered are not specific trademarks, but are generic in nature. For instance, CNet: The Computer Network made an offer of US$50,000 for the domain name television.com (for which the owner was paying just $50 annually). When the owner turned it down expecting a bigger amount, CNet went in for a package deal of tv.com and radio.com for US$ 30,000, leaving him high and dry with television.com still on his hands.

The Net has hundreds of domain name brokers, who operate on a commission basis, making buying and selling generic domain names a thriving business. Last year, one such company, idNames.com brokered the sale of the domain name for US$150,000!

Capitalising on typos is another technique used to live off the brand equity built by well known names. For instance if someone planning to buy a book from Amazon.com (the world's largest bookstore), accidentally types in Amazom.com (happens all the time with the `m' and `n' keys being so close), he reaches a bookstore's page. When he searches for a book however, it takes him to the site of Books.com, a rival online bookstore!

Similarly, lycos.com is a major search engine. But licos.com is a sex site.

Yet another variation of the theme would be visible if you try surfing whitehouse.com in search of the Starr Report. You'd get the report and lots more, since whitehouse.com is an adult site with features like a ``Whitehouse Intern of the month''. Keying in whitehouse.gov instead would be more appropriate if you'd rather stay on track!

These problems are minimised in India since registration and administration of Indian domain names has to be done through the National Centre for Software Technology, Mumbai. Every organisation registering a dotin (.in) domain name has to have an office in India, have its web pages on a server physically located in India, and opt for a domain name derived from the company name. With all these checks in place, even though registrations are currently done free by NCST, there have been no incidents of domain name piracy or hoarding.

The US$ 3.3 million figure that Compaq paid for altavista.com demonstrates just how valuable names are on the Net. Having a name that people recognise and remember can mean the difference between success and failure, on the Internet.

The author is Programme Strategist, Rediff On The Net