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rfc:rfc2352

Network Working Group O. Vaughan Request for Comments: 2352 Vaughan Enterprises Obsoletes: 2240 May 1998 Category: Informational

         A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names

Status of this Memo

 This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
 not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
 memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.

RFC Editor's Note

 This RFC is an independent submission that discusses a possible
 convention for allocating domain names based on corporate and other
 names as registered by law.
 It appears to depend on corporations changing their domain names from
 their present form to more cumbersome handles, such as changing
 cisco.com to cisco-systems.co.ca.us or ibm.com to international-
 business-machines.co.ny.us, without giving them an incentive to do
 so, such as deprecating the .com and .net gTLDs.  It also appears to
 legislate the structure each national registry applies to its name
 space, something which the document itself asserts is within national
 purview and not for global standardization.
 It may not be politically feasible to implement as described.

Vaughan Informational [Page 1] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

Table of Contents

 1.   Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 2.   Overview of the domain space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
 3.   Possible solutions to name exhaustion  . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 4.   Proposed solution  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 4.1   The world is not flat so why should domains be? . . . . . . 4
 4.2   The case for legal names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 4.3   Allocation of legal sub-domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
 4.4   Allocation of miscellaneous sub-domains . . . . . . . . . . 6
 4.5   Identifiers in non-ASCII languages  . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
 4.6   Non-textual identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 5.   Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 6.   References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 7.   Authors' Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
 8.   Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1. Introduction

 The purpose of this memo is to focus discussion on the particular
 problems with the exhaustion of the top level domain space in the
 Internet and the possible conflicts that can occur when multiple
 organisations are vying for the same name. The proposed solutions in
 this document are intended as a framework for development, such that
 a general consensus will emerge as to the appropriate solution to the
 problems in each case, leading eventually to the adoption of
 standards.

2. Overview of the domain space

 Presently the domain space is organised as a heirarchical tree-
 structured namespace with several top level domains (TLDs), and sub-
 domains beneath them. The initial TLDs allocated and rationale are
 documented in RFC 920 [1].
 The TLDs are functionally split up into 'generic' top-level domains
 (gTLDs) and two-letter ISO 3166 country domains for every country in
 which Internet connectivity is provided. The allocation of sub-
 domains under these TLDs is entirely up to the registry for that TLD.
 The registry may decide to allocate further levels of structure or
 merely allocate domains in a 'flat' manner.

Vaughan Informational [Page 2] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

 Example:
         +-----+         +----+                       +----+
         | COM |         | UK |                       | FR |
         +-----+         +----+                       +----+
            |             |  |                         |  |
     +---------+     +----+  +----+     +--------------+  +-----+
     | VAUGHAN |     | AC |  | CO |     | UNIV-AVIGNON |  | AXA |
     +---------+     +----+  +----+     +--------------+  +-----+
        |              |        |              |             |
    +------+    +---------+  +----------+   +-----+      +------+
    | UNIX |    | NEWPORT |  | CITYDESK |   | SOL |      | MAIL |
    +------+    +---------+  +----------+   +-----+      +------+
                     |            |
                  +----+       +-----+
                  | NS |       | FTP |
                  +----+       +-----+
     1. Flat gTLD     2. Heirarchical country      3. Flat country
 In the example we see that the gTLDs are inherently flat, as
 organisations are allocated domain names directly under the TLD.
 With the country domains however, the domain allocation policy can
 vary widely from country to country, and it does. Some may choose to
 implement a functional sub-structure mirroring the gTLDs, some may
 choose to implement a geographical sub-structure, and some may choose
 to have no sub-structure at all.
 In the first case the organisation is clearly a commercial one, as it
 is allocatged under the "COM" TLD. However, there is no information
 as to the country the organisation is based in.  In the third case,
 we know that the organisation is based in France (FR), but without
 studying the actual organisation name we do not know what type of
 organisation it is.  In the second case, we know the country that
 both organisations are based in (UK), and by following the heirarchy,
 we can deduce that the first is an academic organisation (AC), and
 the second is commercial (CO).
 While the system is flexible in not enforcing a strict heirarchy, it
 can lead to exhaustion of domain names in the generic space and lead
 to conflicts between organisations who may both have a legitimate
 claim to have a particular name.

Vaughan Informational [Page 3] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

3. Possible solutions to name exhaustion

 With such a flexible system, there are many ways of preventing the
 name space being exhausted. A solution proposed by [2] is to create
 more gTLDs to allow organisations with the same name to be registered
 uniquely under different TLDs (FIRM, STORE, WEB, ARTS, REC, INFO and
 NOM). However, this has several disadvantages as discussed below:
 a) It creates confusion in users mind as to what TLD refers to a
    particular organisation. For example, MCDONALDS.COM maybe the fast
    food corporation and MCDONALDS.FIRM maybe a firm of lawyers, but
    how is the user supposed to know which is which?
 b) To prevent the above confusion, big corporations will simply
    reserve all the different variations of the name, ie. IBM.COM,
    IBM.FIRM, IBM.STORE etc. Thus we haven't solved the name
    exhaustion or conflict problems, in fact we have made it worse.
 c) Names of legitimate trade mark holders or other legally held names
    can still be acquired by anybody, leading to potential conflicts.
 Another set of possible solutions are discussed by The World
 Intellectual Property Organisation [4] but this only addresses
 dispute resolution when trademarks are used as domain names under
 gTLDs, and not in the full legal context of their origin of
 registration.

4. Proposed solution

 With the aforementioned problems in mind, it is not a good idea to
 create new gTLDs which merely overlap the existing ones. As the
 domain name system is heirarchical it would seem a good idea to
 expand on the existing structure rather than creating several
 duplicate structures.

4.1 The world is not flat so why should domains be?

 With the expansion of the Internet to a truly global medium, the
 notion that there can only be one commercial entity, one orgnisation,
 and one network provider etc. with the same name seems impossible.
 This is the situation that the present system finds itself in.  There
 is a constantly spiralling number of disputes over who 'owns' or
 'deserves' a certain name, with an increasing number ending in
 unnecessary and costly legal action. This is not something that the
 providers of a domain name service should concern themselves with,
 but yet with the present system, this seems inevitable.

Vaughan Informational [Page 4] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

4.2 The case for legal names

 This proposal allows for country-code-based domain names that are
 related to legally registered names in the country (or locality,
 state or province within that country) that they are based in, by
 creating a functional heirarchy beneath the country TLD.
 This proposal does not seek to do away with gTLDs, but rather
 suggests that a legal name should be sought first and then, if
 desired, a generic name could be used alongside it. The organisation
 would then, in case of any disputes, have a legally-held name which
 no other organisation could have any claim to.
 This proposal has several advantages:
 a) The process of deciding what names belong to which organisation
    is no longer a function of the domain name registry, but of the
    company name or trade mark registration authority in the given
    locality. This means that disputes over names cannot arise as all
    names are unique within the context of the legal name.
 b) As all names are unique, there should be no exhaustion
    (deliberately or otherwise) of 'desirable' names by other
    concerns, as all the owners of legally-held names will
    automatically have the right to the relevant domain name.

4.3 Allocation of legal sub-domains

    The sub-domain identifiers should be created from the existing
    indentifiers for company names and trade marks within the given
    locality, state, province or country.
    The general form of such a sub-domain is:
    <legal-token>.<locality-identifier(s)>.<iso3166-country>
    For example:
    LTD.UK           for limited companies in the UK
    PLC.UK           for public limited companies in the UK
    TM.FR            for trademarks in France
    INC.<state>.US   }
    LTD.<state>.US   } for incorpated bodies in the US
    CO.<state>.US    } (each is equivalent)
    CORP.<state>.US  }
    LLC.<state>.US   for limited liability companies in the US
    GMBH.DE          for German companies

Vaughan Informational [Page 5] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

 The registry for the appropriate upper level country, state, province
 or locality domain should create entries in these sub-domains based
 on the laws for allocating such legal names in that particular
 country, state, province or locality.  Specifically, the full legal
 name should be used, but omitting the legal token (eg. Ltd, Corp,
 etc.) as this will be determined by the choice of upper level domain.
 ALL spaces within the name should be converted to hyphens '-' and
 other punctuation either disregarded or also converted into hyphens.
 For holders of international trademarks and other international
 names, the gTLD "INT" can be used in place of the country identifier.
 For example:
    TM.INT  } for international trademarks
    REG.INT }

4.4 Allocation of miscellaneous sub-domains

 In countries that do not have existing sub-structure it is strongly
 recommended that along with the creation of legal sub-domains
 described here, that other sub-domains be created for commercial
 entities, organisations, and academic entities to reduce remaining
 conflicts from organisations that are not legally-registered.
 For example:
                   +------------------+
                | ISO 3166 country | . . . . . . / / . .
                +------------------+        .           .
                 |       |        |         .           .
             +-----+  +-----+  +-----+   +-----+    +-------+
             | AC/ |  | CO/ |  | OR/ |   | LTD |    | state |
             | EDU |  | COM |  | ORG |   +-----+    +-------+
             +-----+  +-----+  +-----+                  |
                                                     +-----+
                                                     | INC |
                                                     +-----+

4.5 Identifiers in non-ASCII languages

 The representation of any domain element is limited to the ASCII
 character set of alphabetic characters, digits and the hyphen, as
 described in RFC 1035 [3]. The representation of names in languages
 that use other character sets is limited by that definition or any
 future update.

Vaughan Informational [Page 6] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

4.6 Non-textual identifiers

 The registration of non-textual trade marks such as logos or three
 dimensional shapes under this scheme is beyond the scope of this
 document. It is unlikely that these marks will need to be used in the
 way that domain names are used presently, but their use is not
 explicitly prohibited.

5. Security Considerations

 This memo raises no issues relating to network security.  However,
 when delegating entries in sub-domains, the registries must ensure
 that the application contains sufficient evidence of the legal rights
 to a given name.

6. References

 [1]  Postel J., and J. Reynolds , "Domain Requirements", RFC 920,
      October 1984.
 [2]  "Generic Top Level Domains - Memoranding of Understanding",
      <URL:http://www.gtld-mou.org/>
 [3]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - Implementation and
      Specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.
 [4]  "Trademarks and Internet Domain Names",
      <URL:http://www.wipo.int/eng/internet/domains/>

7. Author's Address

 Owain Vaughan
 Vaughan Enterprises
 PO Box 155
 Newport NP9 6YX
 UK
 Phone: +44 1633 677849/822164
 Fax:   +44 1633 663706
 EMail: owain@vaughan.com

Vaughan Informational [Page 7] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998

8. Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998).  All Rights Reserved.
 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
 and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
 kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
 developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
 copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
 followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
 English.
 The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Vaughan Informational [Page 8]

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