>You obviously object to the use of generic product names such as "pizza"
>as Third Level Domain Names.  But why should the Ford motor company be
>penalised because its company name is also a generic common noun [ford]?
>Or Hills of Hills Hoists fame? Or Brambles? Or Apple? Or Digital? ....

I for one have no problem with an organization having a 3Ldomain name that
is a dictionary word provided that word is the name of the organization.

>Perhaps it is better to allow one out of a thousand Australian
>pizza-vendors to secure the name pizza, than to deny companies who have
>already traded for several years to use their own business names as
>their domain names. 

I'm not aware of a company called Pizza.

Pizza is a product not an organization.  pizzahut.com.au or
pizzahaven.com.au etc is a perfectly good domain name as far as I can see.
Apple and the others mentioned above are a different matter, after all they
are the real names of the organizations (and they don't sell "apples" or
"hills" do they).

When people use domain names in the directory context to find stuff, having
a domain name that is a product or some generic name is a huge advantage.
If that is also their company name, well and good let them have it.

If somebody wants to start a company called Pizza Pty Ltd (presuming they
can) and register pizza.com.au good luck to them.  They will probably sell
heaps of pizza on the net, but marketing elsewhere will be a bit different.

Can anyone think of an organization which bears the name of its generic
product? (and I'm not talking about CocaCola or similar where where the word
Coke has almost become synonymous with "softdrink").  I'm sure they exist
but I can't think of any.

Take a look at http://www.pizza.com to see what allowing these sorts of
names can do.  One argument for allowing generic words (where that word is
not the company name) is that poor saps like the owner of this page will sit
there waiting for an offer for ever.  But the other side of the coin is that
some hotshot Pizza marketing Manager is going to get the hit rate on the
site and run some calculations over it and work out how much the domain is
worth to them and start making offers.

The Internet community and businesses would be better served by
www.pizza.com(.au) having a directory of Pizza companies on the net.

Cheers

Brett

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Brett Caird		Chief Executive/Director
brettc§bit.net.au	http://www.bit.net.au/
Brisbane Internet Technology Pty Ltd