§ Mrs. Ray MichieTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to protect the names of cities, towns, villages and private houses from being registered as Internet domain names by30W commercial organisations for trading purposes without permission of the legitimate bearers; and if he will make a statement. [120263]
§ Ms HewittDomain Names in the UK are managed by Nominet UK, an independent not-for-profit body. The Government are discussing with Nominet the way forward on this issue. Nominet is consulting with the Scottish Parliament on this subject, and will shortly be consulting with other regional bodies. Civic organisations and other non-profit groups who wish to register domain names incorporating place names should be able to do so in the org.uk Second Level Domain. They can do this by contacting an Internet Service Provider or if necessary they can contact Nominet directly at www.nominet.org.uk.