A couple of weeks ago we told you we were hearing that Verisign had filed objections to new gTLD strings that they believe are confusing to .com or .net for which Verisign is the registry including .Cam, .Bom, .Vet, .Company, .Network.
Last night we published Verisign’s objection to .Cam as being too close to .Com
In support of their objection, Verisign provided the Centere with two affidavit’s, one by a linguist who chatted about how .Com and .Cam sounds that same, and one filed by the former Administrator for Trademark Policy and Procedure of the USPTO who says
“.Com is like a famous mark in the trademark field where the law dictates that newcomers stay far afield from the famous mark” and in his opinion .Cam is to confusing to .Com.
Verisign also submitted a study it has commissioned by ORC International, which asked sets of people if they were confused by .Cam and .Com and concludes 39% of internet users are confused by .cam and .com.
Its a interesting read.
Here is the affidavit of the linguist:
I, Gail Stygall, state the following:
1. That I am a linguist employed by the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. I am a Professor of English Language and an adjunct Professor of Linguistics. I have been employed by the University of Washington for more than 22 years. I earned my Ph.D. in English Language at Indiana University Bloomington in 1989 and also have a B.A. from Indiana University. Since I have been at the University of Washington, I have continued my research on how ordinary people understand complex language such as that employed in the legal or the financial community. I teach graduate students in the area, lead seminars, given papers at international conferences, and publish articles.
2. As a linguist, particularly an English language linguist, I am well aware of the sounds of English, both vowels and consonants, the structure of the language and its vocabulary. I have been asked by Verisign, Inc. to determine if, on grounds of visual, aural or semantic similarities, the newly proposed .cam TLD string is likely to prove confusing to consumers, especially with respect to the TLD .com.
3. The two words have visual similarity and a potential sound similarity. Both are three letters with the first and last letters exactly the same. The substitution of an “a” for an “o” is just as likely as a substitution of an “o” for an “a.
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