Should our city, township or village obtain a .gov domain name?

Intellectual Property, Technology Law Comments (0)

The General Services Administration (GSA) is a federal agency responsible for oversight of the dot-gov internet domain name. To preserve the integrity of .gov name space, .gov domain names are limited to the United States government organizations at the federal, state and local level.

No private entity can register a .gov domain name. The domain name the community selects  must include the community name and a clear reference to the state in which the communityis located.

Some advantages of registering the .gov domain name are as follows:

(1) .gov conclusively establishes the website as the official website of the Village because no private entity can register .gov as its top level domain name – there can be confusion if two or more entities use the same 2nd level domain name e.g. community.com or community.org or community.net; (2) .gov is usually easier to remember as the official government site; (3) local governments are beginning to develop their websites as places for residents and business to go for government information and services; (4) All .gov Internet domains are registered for a 2-year eligibility period.

Some of the disadvantages of registering the .gov domain names are as follows: (1) The current cost of a .gov domain name is $125 per year, renewable each year with another $125 fee. .com and .org are usually around $30-35 per year; (2) your community will have to update all the business cards, stationery, and other materials bearing the old domain names.

About:  Dr. Rayan F. Coutinho is an Intellectual Property and Technology Law attorney at the law firm of Wood & Lamping LLP and can be reached at 513-852-6030 or by email at rfcoutinho@woodlamping.com.

admin @ August 21, 2009