WIPO Highlights Speculative Risks in Domain Name Registration Practices

The Internet's key site identity system is in mounting danger from new techniques that could cause havoc by turning it into a free-for-all market, the World Intellectual Property Organization warned on Monday.

And the United Nations' agency said the latest trends in registering top-level domain names (TLDs) could undermine dispute procedures under which patent holders can pursue "cybersquatters."

"Domain names used to be primarily specific identifiers of businesses and other Internet users, but many names nowadays are mere commodities for speculative gain," senior WIPO official Francis Gurry told a news conference.

Gurry, who runs the agency's own site-name dispute system, said the growth of computer-driven practices, like automatic mass harvesting of expired TLDs and "domain-name tasting," risks turning the system "into a mostly speculative market."