
Business owners must be ever-vigilant to make sure that their valuable names are protected in cyberspace. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and Google+ each have their own procedures to prevent "cyber-squatting," not to mention the problems that arise when more than one company has legitimate claims to the same trademark such as United Airlines and United Van Lines. The effort is endless. ICANN's initiative to add gTLDs to this mix (especially generic names like ".book" or ".hotel" that potentially could be locked up by one company) makes things needlessly harder for trademark owners. Even worse, the fees make this procedure prohibitive for all but the largest companies. And where is the benefit to the average consumer or Internet user in all of this? I fail to see the benefit to any of it.