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0 pointscrote3y ago0 comments

The thing is, we tried this already. Twice.

First with domain names. The domain "nissan.com" is not owned by the well-known car company but by a completely unrelated computer company. As "Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer" settled, this is totally fine and Nissan Computer still owns the domain.

Besides exact matches there are also similar-looking names. For example, a student named Mike Rowe started a small webdesign company called MikeRoweSoft, which drew the attention of Microsoft, leading to "Microsoft v. MikeRoweSoft" - which was settled out of court and resulted in the domain being transferred to Microsoft.

Second are Extended Validation domains - which used to show the company name in the URL bar. As Ian Carroll demonstrated[0] this isn't really worth a lot, and browsers no longer bother showing it at all[1].

Company names also often overlap when they are active in different areas, such as Apple Corp (record label founded by The Beatles) and Apple Inc. (tech multinational) - which over the years have shifted towards a rather impressive market overlap! Some companies are split with both sides keeping the original name, such as Motorola Inc.'s split into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility. Sometimes products are sold under a completely different brand name, such as HMD selling Nokia-branded smartphones, or TP Vision selling Philips-branded televisions while MMD sells Philips-branded gaming monitors!

The thing is, reality is just too complicated for a "very simple" register. How are you supposed to fit in all of the scenarios listed above while still keeping it usable?

[0]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/12/nope-... [1]: https://www.troyhunt.com/extended-validation-certificates-ar...

0 comments

mavhc3y ago

.uk has .ltd.uk and .plc.uk which are only available to registered companies. No one uses them

tokai3y ago

Your name confusion is missing the point. It's the central registration done at a national level, not a True delimitation of which domain names which companies can own. A company could use downloadfreeram.tk, as long as it's officially registered in the national company register.

nocoiner3y ago

OK. What do you do in the United States where every state (and territory and the federal administrative district) has its own company register? Or where a vast number of businesses are sole proprietorships that have registered their trade name in their local county office?

TheOtherHobbes3y ago

Sounds like there might be some kind of solution for this that - just spitballing here - uses networked computers.

croteOP3y ago

So private individuals would not be allowed to register domains?

It sounds a bit like you just want WHOIS, which in practice turned out to be a bit useless.

Rediscover3y ago

Semi-OT: You just reminded me of dealing with subsidiaries in the1980s and 1990's. (Before chain of certs).

I spoke up about it on a mailing (probably an IETF one) list about subsidiary companies should be required to have not xyz.com but xyz.<owning company>.<over-seeing owner company>.com as their address. Example: In the U.S. it's not simple to get /real/ xyz with all the vitamins. So a hypothetical xyz.com should really turn up on search result as xyz.<parent company>.com.

Adjust as fit. Maybe $xx/year or the quantity of companies underneath the majorowner before compliance.

I was praising the value of something I did know the USian market had a distributorship over [in the geographical real] with a sub-standard product.

Let me know that I am looking at stats on y product (only served in z country).

Let me know that xyz name in my country is different ta your place.

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