Courts, Trademarks, and the ICANN Gold Rush: No Free Speech in Top Level Domains

In recent years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) expanded top-level domains, such as .com, .net, and .org, to include a very wide variety of new terms. One of the new options is .sucks. This Article examines the potential for conflict when trademark holders seek to protect their mark in the context of the .sucks domain. There is a temptation to see this issue in terms of consumers’ free speech rights pitted against corporate interests.

However, the recent privatization of ICANN does not bode well for promoting consumers’ First Amendment rights in domain name battles.