What does gTLD stand for

asks howardpiercy

A. gTLD stands for Generic Top Level Domain and it means the top-level part of an internet address, eg� .com, .org and .net are all gTLDs, or TLDc as�they is more commonly known. For general internet addresses you will also come across ccTLDs, which are country code top-level domains, eg .uk is a ccTLD.

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Q. Who controls domain names

A. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), www.icann.org, controls the international distribution of domain names. Last year (November 2000) they authorised seven additional gTLDs for distribution. These are .name (for personal use), .biz (for businesses), .info (general use), .pro (for professionals), .museum (for museums), .aero (for air transport and travel agents) and .coop (for cooperations and trade unions).

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Q. How long have they been organising the distribution of domain names

A. Since 1998. It was previously�done by the US Government and a number of private organisations, predominantly in America. The organisation is non-profit making and works independently of any national government, but it has faced criticism lately for taking too long to make decisions. It is reported to have begun taking proposals for new domain names at the end of 1998, and did not make a decision on them until November 2000.

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Q. How are the domain names distributed to the public

A. Registrars sell the domain names to the public.

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Q. How can I find out more information on the new domain names and how to get one

A. You can get information online now on how to register for the new domain names from the following registrars: for additional information on .coop contact www.cooperative.org, for .museum contact www.musedoma.org, for .aero contact www.sita.int, for .biz contact www.neulevel.com, for .pro contact www.registrypro.com, for .name contact www.theglobalname.org and for .info contact www.afilias.com.

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Q. When will the new domain names be released

A. Release dates for the three new gTLDs for specific business i.e. .coop, .aero and .museum have yet to be released. The same goes for .pro and .name but they are believed to be looking at an early 2002 release date. For .biz the new sites will go live at the end of this month (September) and for .biz the new domain names are set to go live in October.

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Q. What would I have to do if I wanted to register for a .biz or .info domain name.

A. You could well be too late to secure a definite domain name as the allocation process has been under way for some time. As .biz will be the first of the new gTLDs to go live, intellectual property claims were processed earlier this year in May - this gave companies wishing to trademark their company name the chance to do it before they were available on the open market.

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Registering a trademark domain name costs �60 - and companies would have had to have held the original trademark to their company name before they could register it as a trademark domain name e.g. only the Woolwich would have been able to claim a trademark on www.woolwich.biz , if they wished to. Fees charged by the registrar thereafter will be in the range of �5 per year for a .biz or .info domain name.

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All new .biz domain names that had not already been claimed went on sale to the public at the beginning of September, and from now on they will be processed on first come, first served basis, so names will still be available but lots of others will be gone. For .info, you had to register it as a trademark by 12 September and it will be open to the public from October.

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Q. What should I do if the domain name I want has already been taken

A. If you hold the trademark to that name, contact the official registrar above and ask them to take action on your behalf to reclaim the name, if you don't hold any rights to the name already you will probably have lost it and you will have to think of another name and try registering that. Organisations like the World Intellectual Property Forum will take up cases under dispute, they can be contacted at http://arbiter.wipo.net.

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by Karen Anderson