ANA Urges Department of Commerce To Push For Do Not Sell Registry For Second-Level Domains

WASHINGTON (Sept. 27, 2012) - The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has urged the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to work within the internet stakeholder processes of ICANN to advocate for a Do Not Sell registry at the upcoming ICANN Board meeting next month in Toronto. ANA’s letter is a follow-up to a meeting on September 4 that was hosted by DOC and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to discuss additional protections at the second level for all new gTLDs.

Dan Jaffe, ANA Group Executive Vice President, stated: “The internet community is on the verge of a Top Level Domain tsunami which will create a huge wave of risk for both businesses and consumers. More than a thousand TLDs are being considered to be added to the internet which should lead to an explosive growth in secondary domains (those domains to the left of the dot in internet addresses). We believe it is critical that the DOC push for a comprehensive protection system that includes both a Do Not Sell registry and strong Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs).”

ANA’s letter notes that there is growing consensus within the business community to implement a TLD block list to address the serious concerns about the need for defensive registrations at both the top-level and second-level. In addition, some high-volume prospective registry applicants like Donuts, Inc. have stated plans to consolidate their block lists. However, ANA believes that a TLD-by-TLD block list will be wholly inadequate for the number of new gTLDs expected to be approved by ICANN.

Jaffe stated: “We are very concerned that the existing and proposed new protections from ICANN will not meet the serious challenges that lie ahead. Cybersquatting and fraud are rampant problems in the current universe of 22 TLDs. Even if only half of the new gTLDs receive delegation into the internet root database, the projected increase would be 3,181 percent. It is critical for the integrity of the internet that the Department of Commerce and other members of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN come together to demand more protections for both consumers and businesses.”

Jaffe emphasized: “The cost to companies that want to defensively register domains at the second level could mount easily into the multi-millions of dollars. The costs of defensive registrations also could be economically unfeasible for small and medium sized companies that will face enhanced risks of cybersquatting, typosquatting and phishing in the expanding top level domain universe.”

ANA has been advocating for ICANN to adopt a “Do Not Sell” registry for almost a year and will be taking part in the upcoming ICANN Board meeting next month in Toronto to continue to push for this common sense approach. ANA’s letter concluded: “We are on the verge of grave threats to the stability of the internet, so now is the time to act.”

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About the ANA

The mission of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) is to drive growth for marketing professionals, brands and businesses, the industry, and humanity. The ANA serves the marketing needs of 20,000 brands by leveraging the 12-point ANA Growth Agenda, which has been endorsed by the Global CMO Growth Council. The ANA’s membership consists of U.S. and international companies, including client-side marketers, nonprofits, fundraisers, and marketing solutions providers (data science and technology companies, ad agencies, publishers, media companies, suppliers, and vendors). The ANA creates Marketing Growth Champions by serving, educating, and advocating for more than 50,000 industry members that collectively invest more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually.

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