Antony Van Couvering
Names@Work Founder
Bio
Articles
White Papers/Proposals
Research
Speaking/Panels
Quoted in the Press
Other writings
Bio
I’ve been working with domain names and Internet infrastructure since 1996, as well as playing a substantial role in Internet governance issues. I am known for thorough, candid analyses and innovative solutions.
In 1999 I founded NameEngine, where I worked with many of the world’s top companies including American Express, Bridgestone-Firestone, Citibank, Colgate-Palmolive, Goodyear, Intel, Kodak, and Viacom, and with top IP law firms including Fross Zelnick, Ladas & Parry, and Brown Raysman. I sold NameEngine to VeriSign in December of 2001, and as part of the arrangement worked at VeriSign Digital Brand Management Services, handling their marketing and partnerships as well as developing their customer domain name management portal.
In 1997 I founded NetNames USA, the first firm to handle the domain name needs of larger companies. I built the company up to 30 employees before selling the company to NetBenefit, a publicly-traded technology company based in London.
During this time, I started and managed several top-level country code domains, including .TM (Turkmenistan), .AS (American Samoa), .BT (Bhutan), and .PW (Palau) – all of these top-level domains are now run as public-private partnerships. Working with Jon Postel, I co-authored a proposal to reform the .US domain by de-emphasizing its old cumbersome geographical structure. Many of the suggestions in the proposal (though unfortunately not all) were later implemented when the .US domain was re-launched in 2002.
I’ve been deeply involved with Internet governance issues since the first stirrings of reform began in 1997. I was head of the Policy Advisory Body under the old gTLD-MoU structure, which later morphed (tortuously) into ICANN. Under that structure, as President of the International Association of Top-Level Domains, I chaired the meeting in Singapore that birthed the Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN, and I was one of the governing council of the ccTLD constituency within ICANN, where I worked especially on government relations and ccTLD standards-setting. I’ve also worked to bring some clarity to the vexed subject of internationalized (non-Roman-character) domain names by organizing and chairing meetings between different interests.
I am a speaker at meetings where the Internet and intellectual property questions are aired. I write on Internet and domain name issues for a variety of publications, in public discussion forums, and on the Names@Work blog.
Articles
Most of my articles are now written on my blog. Here are a few articles I’ve written for others:
April 2004 – Guest Column, VeriSign Digital Branding Bulletin. My report from the March 2004 ICANN meeting in Rome. I talk about the proposed Wait List Service and the introduction of new top-level domains.
May 2003 – Trademark World – “Question Time”, part of the regular feature “The Knowledge”. My discussion of the important role of the domain name vendor for corporate portfolios, with criteria for selecting them. Not available online.
White Papers/Proposals
May 15, 2000 – “Best Practice and Redelegation Guidelines for ccTLD Managers.” I made an concerted attempt to convince ICANN and ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee to consider the question of who should run ccTLDs from the point of view of performance, rather than the never-to-be-settled question of rights. The proposal included best practices for top-level domain name name management as well as a dispute resolution mechanism.
October 6, 1997 – “Proposal to Augment the Administration of the .US Name Space.” Working under the direct tutelage of Dr. Jon Postel, I co-authored this proposal to extend the .US domain to make it more useful and popular with Americans.
Research
February 2000 – NameEngine 500 Value Protection Index. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) At NameEngine, I decided to see how well companies had covered their brands on the Internet by registering them as domain names, and worked out a methodology for measuring the results (explained in the document). The survey took the Fortune 500 and examined which of their major brands they owned, how many were unregistered, and how many were pirated.
Speaking/Panels
April 19 - 21, 2006 - I’m on many panels at the Domain Roundtable, including
- “So your corporation just put you in charge of their domains. Now what?”
- “Proactive vs. Reactive IP Strategy Workshop”
- “ccTLDs and the Domain Marketplace”
- “Protecting Your Brand Online”
- “Legal and Business Issues”
May 26-27, 2005 - “ccTLDs and the Domain Marketplace,” at the Domain Roundtable conference in Seattle. A panel looking at the evolution of ccTLDs and how they fit into the dizzying secondary market in domain names.
March 17, 2003 – “ICANN, ccTLD, and the Legacy Root,” a program sponsored by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, Jacob Burns Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media, and Society, Intellectual Property Law Study [whew…]. I delivered a bitter commentary on the oft-touted principles of ICANN, and compare them to the (opposite) reality.
Quoted in the Press
September 11, 2006 - Wall Street Journal, “Boundless Possibilities: As ‘networked books’ start to appear, consumers, publishers, and authors get a glimpse of publishing to come.” (Excerpts here) The Wall Street Journal looks networked books, especially our project for Pulse.
August 10, 2001 – CNET – “Renting out Web names garners big bucks.” For a short time there was a fad (at least on the entrepreneur’s side) for buying domain names and leasing them out. I express disbelief that anyone serious about building a brand would consider this.
June 4, 2001 – Network World – “Users call new domains too confusing, costly.”
February 23, 2001 – Wall Street Journal – “Domain-Name Grab by ‘Cybersquatters’ Is Setting Off Big Turf War With Firms.” My views on the introduction of Chinese-character domain names under the Chinese top-level domain, .CN; the unpreparedness of American firms; and the wholesale piracy that ensued.
March 6, 2000 – Newsbytes – “Cyber piracy greater than expected.” An example of the press I got after releasing the NameEngine 500 report, which detailed how well companies were protecting their brands on the Internet.
Dec 12, 1999 – CNET – “Registrars race to profit from longer domain names.” I represent here the view that the longer names are not really a terrific idea, and that they were unlikely to be very profitable either for registrars or for speculators.
November 12, 1998 – CNET – “Sparks to fly at domain meeting.” Prior to ICANN’s first public meeting, there was a lot of anxiety about what they had planned for the Internet, especially given the famous “virgin birth” of nine of the Board members, who were appointed in mysterious circumstances. I feared a handover of policy issues to governmental operatives.
October 14, 1998 – Wired – “I Want My .TV!”
September 1998 – Wired – “Buy this domain”
Feb 3, 1998 – CNET – “New domain bypasses red tape.” This was one of the stories that came out when I started the .TM domain. Heady times.
January 30, 1998 – TechWeb – “Europeans disappointed by Net names plan.” The Green Paper, which was the U.S. Government publication that doomed the IAHC and started us down the road to ICANN, was greeted by the Europeans with dismay because it firmly established the U.S. Government (surprise) as the final arbiter on a wide range of Internet policy issues. I wasn’t too happy about it either.
January 23, 1998 – NetworkWorldFusion – “CORE members face defeat.” It had become apparent that the IAHC effort was going to be jettisoned by the U.S. Government under Ira Magaziner’s leadership (CORE was one of the three bodies within the IAHC plan). I considered it (and still do) to be a unilateral putsch which had immediate bad consequences for my company, and which established a disturbing precedent for heavy-handed government involvement.
March 14, 1997 – Houston Business Journal – “Internet ‘name scalpers’ staging battle for corporate domain names.” Before there was ICANN, there was the IAHC, and a proposal to create new top-level domain names. I was a supporter of the doomed IAHC, and was actively talking to my clients about needing to be aware of Internet governance issues.
March 7, 1997 – Washington Business Journal – “Name scalpers, new domains gunk up Internet.” I am presented here in a bad light, as a carpetbagger ready to make money on other people’s confusion. This was one of my first encounters with the press, and it taught me some valuable lessons about watching my mouth…
Other
March 25, 2001 – I answer a question on the INTA list as an example of my approach to intellectual property protection issues on the Internet, in this case in answer to a question from a lawyer about how to handle the opening of .BIZ and .INFO. It’s crucial to be aware of, use to your advantage, the technical parameters that often determine policy in Internet organizations such as a top-level domain, instead of relying on a legal framework. The result is less litigation and less money spent.
1999 – My election statement when I put forward my candidacy for the ICANN Names Council on behalf of the ccTLD Constituency. As the only member of the constituency who wasn’t running a ccTLD, I was always an anomaly there, and as it turns out I lost this election. But it’s a pretty good summing up of my position with regard to ccTLD issues.
March 19, 1999 – My extensive comments on WIPO’s RFC-3, made as President of the International Association of Top-Level Domains. The RFC sought to require policy changes in ccTLD operations. I discuss several flawed ideas, which unfortunately are still in wide currency.
November 6, 1998 – My letter to ICANN, calling on them to maintain in force RFC 1591, an Internet policy document which outlined how top-level domains should be managed, and outlined how issues of “rights” to them should be handled. ICANN arrogated much power to itself by publishing (without any outside input) IPC-1, which substantially revised the old co-operative Internet top-level domain working method. 62 ccTLDs supported this movement
November 5, 1998 – On this page is my short homage (among those by many others) to Dr. Jon Postel following his untimely death.
