<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" valign="top" width="100%"><p style="line-height: 150%;"><b><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 215);">Has
ICANN Opened Pandora's Box? New gTLDs Are Still Months
Away But the Lawsuits and Recriminations Have Already
Begun</span></font></b></p><p style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(210, 236, 255);">I
fully expect that ICANN's plan </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></b>to roll out <b>unlimited new gTLDs</b>
starting early next year will create <b>chaos</b>, with consternation
among confused consumers, anger among trademark holders
who will have to spend more to protect their marks in
new extensions, and turf battles between warring parties
competing to operate the higher profile new gTLD
registries. </p></td>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: -8px;" align="center"><img src="http://www.dnjournal.com/events/photos/2009/domainer-mardi-gras/review/vancouvering-antony.jpg" border="0" height="336" width="280"></p>
<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 18px;" align="center"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 215);">Antony
Van Couvering<br>
Minds + Machines CEO </span></b>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 18px;" align="left"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What
I haven't been expecting is to see chaos start breaking
out <b>now</b> - many months before the world will
actually see a new gTLD in operation. The lawsuits have
already started flying. <a href="http://domainnamewire.com/2009/09/02/mindsmachines-sues-wolfgang-puck-over-food-tld/" target="_blank"><b><u>Word
today</u></b></a> came that one of the premier companies
planning to compete in the new gTLD space, <b>Minds +
Machines</b>, has filed suit against their partner in the
quest to obtain <b>.food</b> - famous chef <b>Wolfgang
Puck</b> and his wife <b>Gelila</b>.</span></p><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 18px;" align="left"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In
a <b><a href="http://www.mindsandmachines.com/2009/09/minds-machines-files-suit/" target="_blank"><u>statement</u></a></b>
posted on the Minds + Machines website, CEO <b>Antony Van
Couvering</b> gave an account of what led his company to
go on the offensive, writing "</span>On Thursday last
week, Minds + Machines received a letter from <b>Daniel
Petrocelli</b> of <b>O’Melveny and Myers</b>, the trial
lawyer who represented <b>Jeffrey Skilling</b> of <b>Enron</b>.
On behalf of Gelila and Wolfgang Puck, Mr. Petrocelli
claimed that the Pucks have the <b>right to co-invest in
most </b>
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<p style="line-height: 150%;"><b>of our business endeavors</b>,
and that their <b>introductions</b> to some celebrity
acquaintances entitle them to <b>50%</b> <b>of some of
Minds + Machines’ business endeavors</b>. Yesterday, in
Federal Court, we filed suit against Gelila and Wolfgang
Puck, asking the court to declare that their claims are <b>frivolous</b>,
and that they do not have a right to participate in our <b>non-.FOOD</b>
projects.
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 18px;">Apparently
Gelila Puck is convinced the new gTLDs are going to
produce a <b>vast fortune</b> and she wants a bigger share
of the pie. An article at <b><a href="http://gawker.com/5351233/anna-wintour-just-an-employee-to-wolfgang-pucks-wife" target="_blank"><u>Gawker.com</u></a></b>
about the lawsuit noted that the suit says she has been
telling people she will be "<b>the next</b> <b>Bill
Gates</b>." All I can say is that if this is true,
the poor woman is in for a <b>horribly rude awakening</b>.
She might want to look into how many <b>new billionaires</b>
were created by the first round of new gTLDs (<b>.biz </b>and
<b>.info</b>). Hint: You can count them on less than one
finger.</p>
<p style="line-height: 150%;">Lady Puck isn't the only one
suffering from illusions of new gTLD grandeur. As <b>Andrew
Allemann</b> noted at <b><a href="http://domainnamewire.com/2009/09/01/sport-asks-just-what-is-a-top-level-domain/" target="_blank"><u>Domain
Name Wire</u></a></b> just yesterday, the <b>.Sport Policy
Advisory Council</b> (who wants to see a .sport TLD) sent
ICANN a <b><a href="http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eicann%2Eorg%2Fcorrespondence%2Fbaumann%2Dto%2Ddengate%2Dthrush%2D20aug09%2Den%2Epdf&images=no" target="_blank"><u>threatening
letter</u></a> </b>warning against giving anyone else an
extension related to <b>any</b> sport! This even though no
one, including them, has been awarded <b>any</b> extension
yet. </p>
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<p style="line-height: 150%;">Even so, these people
had the audacity to tell ICANN the following (my
comments are in red) "we emphatically oppose
any diminution of .SPORT <font color="#a80000">(how
can something that <b>doesn't even exist</b> be
diluted?!) </font>and will take <b>all steps
necessary </b>to ensure that the top-level domain
for our sector is properly protected. <font color="#a80000">(sounds
like a <b>lawsuit threat</b> even though these
people don't own an extension to begin with!) </font>We
are concerned that ICANN may be prematurely
entertaining a process that will allow
proliferation of names in sub-categories or<b>
individual sports </b>
which will lead to confusion in the marketplace of
users <font color="#a80000">(in
other words, no one else can own</font></p></td>
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<p align="center"><img src="http://www.dnjournal.com/images/lowdown/bully.jpg" border="0" height="216" width="290"></p>
<p align="center"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 215);">New
gTLDs are still months away but<br>
the bullies are already roaming the halls.</span></p></td>
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<p style="line-height: 150%;"><font color="#a80000">.football,
.baseball. etc. because these clowns think they
have some pre-ordained right to own <b>everything</b>)</font>.
We cannot accept ICANN approving any
applications for top-level domains that could
diminish the solidarity implied with .SPORT" <font color="#a80000">(<b>Huh!?</b>
Wait a minute...you can't accept ICANN approving
any applications....! Fellas - <b>your</b>
application hasn't been accepted either! You might
want to wait until that little hurdle is crossed
before you issue further orders telling ICANN what
they can and cannot do)</font><font color="#000000">. </font></p></td>
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<p style="line-height: 150%;">This is <b>amazingly
misguided stuff</b>. I have felt from the beginning that
ICANN was opening a <b>can of worms</b> with this whole
unlimited new gTLD process, but I don't think they have <b>any
idea</b> of what is in store for them. This is <b>Pandora's
Box on steroids</b>. One very prominent domain developer
told me he thinks the new gTLD program will create such a
mess that it will lead to<b> the end of ICANN</b>. I
scoffed when he first told me that, but with the lawsuits
and recriminations already flying at this extremely early
stage of the game, I am no longer so so skeptical on that
point. It looks like a <b>fiasco is brewing</b> that could
create some <b>hurricane force blowback</b>. If that
happens, I wouldn't want to be the entity that loosed this
<b>Frankenstein's monster</b> on the Internet.</p>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><font color="#000000" size="2"><span style="background-color: rgb(230, 242, 214);">(Posted<font color="#004f00">
</font>September 2</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(230, 242, 214);">, 2009)</span></font></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table>