Protect your domain name
DCITA is conducting a review of the .au Internet domain and has released a discussion paper which is worth looking at. Among other issues of governance and policy, it also seeks comment on naming structures and poses the question of whether it should be possible to register names 'directly at the top level eg www.dcita.au'. Without commenting on whether this is a good or a bad thing, it is prudent to know if this eventually gets implemented. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard of what look like attempts to exploit someone else's 'brand' by registering their name in other domains. For example, if my site is called 'www.mysite.edu.au' and it is a well established brand, another party may try to register 'www.mysite.com.au' to exploit the traffic etc that is trying to find me. If you are eligible to register in other domains, it may be wise to register your name in them to protect your business. If the top level domain is opened up, as suggested in the discussion paper, then serious consideration needs to be given to protecting your brand if you meet the eligibility criteria for that level.
technorati tags: .au Internet Domain, DCITA,domain name
