What are domain names and why do people have disputes about them?

    Domain names are just a short-hand way to get to a particular internet protocol address (commonly called an IP address) on the World Wide Web.  For example, BrownWelsh.com will normally get you to internet address 216.25.39.138 (well, it used to be 64.227.230.186!).  It sure is easier to remember BrownWelsh.com rather than 216.25.39.138 or even 64.227.230.186!  You can only imagine the address changes notices required by such a change.

               There are lots of gTLDs (global top level domain names), such as (this list was pulled from http://www.norid.no/domreg.html):

1.                  .com – commercial

2.                  .net – networks

3.                  .org – organizations

4.                  .aero – aviation

5.                  .biz – business organizations

6.                  .cat – Catalan language and culture

7.                  .coop – co-operative organizations

8.                  .edu – educational

9.                  .gov – United States government (federal and state)

10.              .info – information

11.              .int – international organizations

12.              .jobs – jobs

13.              .mil – United States Department of Defense

14.              .mobi – mobile devices

15.              .museum – museums

16.              .name – personal

17.              .travel – traveling

    Each country has its own top level domain name (ccTLDs – country code top level domains) and may have sub-domain names, such as www.royal.gov.uk or www.ryderamies.co.uk.  Each top level domain has its own set of dispute resolution rules, although .com, .net and .org all use the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) developed by the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

    Domain names can represent names of companies, product lines or individual products (or just about anything else imaginable).  Problems happen when other people use the names you want to use (since there a domain name can only point to one IP address at a time).  Who has the better rights?

    We have spoken to a variety of audiences on domain name disputes, ranging from bar associations to chambers of commerce.  Materials from some of our speeches are available here: